Whitby boxing club to receive more than £100,000 to expand

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

The authority’s cabinet will meet on Tuesday where it will approve 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.

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 will go before the cabinet, states that the boxing club has outgrown its current home of St Patrick’s Church in Church Street.

The report adds:

“Prior to lockdown the club was delivering four weekly training sessions for local people between the ages of six and 40.

“At present, the Club operates with six volunteer trainers, all of whom are DBS cleared and have received appropriate safeguarding training. There are currently four new additional trainers waiting to be taken on in a voluntary capacity who are waiting to undergo safeguarding and other associated training.

“In total, the club has 50 registered trainee boxers, its maximum capacity at its current location.

“A number of socially distanced training sessions have been delivered in recent weeks as lockdown restrictions have been eased however these are currently being reviewed in line with the new pandemic restrictions issued by Government in September.”

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.