Funding agreed to support expansion of Whitby boxing club

Scarborough Council’s cabinet has agreed to give more than £100,000 to support the expansion of a boxing club in Whitby.

The authority’s cabinet today approved the funding as part of the Whitby Eastside Community Centre Extension project.

The money, £100,000 from Section 106 agreements and £17,135 leftover from previous projects, will be used to build a dedicated extension to the Eastside Community Centre for Whitby Boxing Club.

Cllr Phil Kershaw, the cabinet member for Quality of Life, welcomed the progress on the project.

He said:

“This is a genuine community project that has been a long time in planning having started back in 2016.

“This is one of those projects that brings nothing but benefits to the community and will be a genuine asset to East Side community in particular but also Whitby as a whole.”

A planning application is currently being worked on and the cabinet will release the funding in order to secure the backing of Sport England, which has pledged £150,000 from its Community Asset Fund. A further £50,000 has been secured from the Sirius Minerals Foundation.

A report, which went before the cabinet, stated that the boxing club, which has 50 registered trainee fighters, has outgrown its current home of St Patrick’s Church in Church Street.

The funding from the council will secure the progress of the scheme which will see the building on an extension to house a large training space for the exclusive use of boxing, training and combat sports activity under a long-term lease agreement with the council.