I’m thrilled that the Petersfield Partnership in Cheltenham, with whom I’ve been working for the last three years, have been successful in their application to the Community Ownership Fund with the award of £450,000.

The Partnership wants to build a Community & Sports Hub to provide facilities for both local residents, especially those in The Moors and St Peter’s, and Cheltenham Saracens FC. The new Hub will replace some knackered shipping containers and secure a long term future in the ownership of a community run charity. We got planning permission in January and have spent this year working up project details.

I was initially asked to work on the business plan for the project. This was extended a year ago to preparing a funding strategy and then from April this year the management of the whole project. Working closely with the Partnership, Cheltenham Saracens, Cheltenham Borough Council and St Peter’s and The Moors Big Local the proposals were reconfigured, the costs were reviewed with the help of Adams Fletcher Quantity Surveyors, and funding proposals submitted to Big Local and COF. The business planning and application forms were an exercise in mental gymnastics, but we got there!

We have now been offered over 80% of its £1m phase 1 funding target. We hope to be on site with construction early next year and to be up and running by December 2024.