H.C.J.F.C ,                          LOTTERY BID PAGE


Howden Clough are one of the partners together with The Football Foundation, Kirklees Council Culture and Leisure Services, LEA Kirklees Active Leisure, Howden Clough Girls High School who have been successful with the bid for the Astra Turf and coming new changing rooms.

Howden Clough Secretary Yvonne Walker has guided this whole project through to fruition.

“We are very proud of the new facilities and whilst it has been eight years of hard work with many setbacks our players and officials past and present together with parents have all supported this project with fund raising events and a great deal of patience!. We hope everyone will join us at the official launch on January 29th 2005“. Sec Yvonne Walker
 
 "KIRKLEES HIT THE FUNDING JACKPOT"
Headlines from Football Foundation web site Press release.  LINK
KIRKLEES, HOWDEN CLOUGH GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL AND HOWDEN CLOUGH JFC SECURE FUNDING FOR NEW FACILITIES WITH A GRANT FOR £508,987  MORE
 
    UPDATE (26-11-99). Had a visit from VIP from London, who looked at site, still no definite decision but they have not said NO .Decision now moved to Jan.
    UPDATE (8-3-2000) Letter circulated to Players and Parents
We write inform you that unfortunately our application for lottery funding has been unsuccessful. However, the lottery board stated in their letter that they would welcome a re-application if the raised issues could be resolved. With this in mind we have been in contact with Kirklees Council who have assured us they will address these issues that have been questioned, and a meeting has been arranged with the parties concerned to discuss these in early April. We shall of course inform you of the outcome of this meeting.
   Whilst this news is not what we had hoped for, you can be assured that everything that can be done is being done and we shall continue to aim for what we as a club deserve.
   We would like to thank you for all your patience and your contributions towards the clubs ground development plan and again, please be assured that we have by no means given up .There is no room for negativity. We want the best for our players and we have plenty of ambition left to fight another day. We are optimistic that the council will be true to their word and sort out the issues so that we can re-submit our bid. We have been informed that once the bid has been re-submitted we will have a reply within sixteen weeks.
If you would like any further information, please do not hesitate to contact your manager or the secretary.
yours sincerely
Howden Clough JFC Committee.   
UPDATE (Nov2000)
As you are aware our application to Sport England was turned down. There has since been a change with regards to lottery funding and all applications made for football are now being passed on to the Football Foundation who will be awarding the grants. The Football Foundation cannot award grants to football clubs who do not own their own land or have a 99 year lease and therefore the bid will be put in by Kirklees Council on behalf of Howden Clough JFC. We are in the process of re-costing the project, updating the Sports Development, Business and Financial Plans. All these details together with the contractual secure of tenure drawn up to protect the clubs interest will go back to the club committee for approval and if approved the council have assured us the bid will be in by Christmas. Kirklees are also having a meeting this week with the F A and it will be Cloughs name they are putting forward for application for a grant through the council. Having spoken with the Football Foundation ourselves they have stated to us that at this time they do not know what the turn around will be regards approval of grants as all their policies have yet to be put in place, however as most of the work required from the club and council has already been done they will be working towards an answer as soon as possible.
We are sure like us your patience is waning somewhat, we should by now be reaping the rewards, as a club we have covered the criteria required, however as we do not own any land (if anyone has any spare land in the Birstall area to sell that will cater for 27 teams please let us know!) and our partners are Kirklees Council the reality has been different but you can be assured of this, we will never give up trying to improve facilities, how can we, what alternative do we have. Without a contractual secure or tenure with the council we would be in danger of putting money into facilities that could always be at threat.
If you require any further information regarding the Ground Development your manager is up to speed with everything or you can contact the Secretary Yvonne Walker on 01924440603.  
 

History of our Bid
The initial seeds of Howden Cloughs long term development were laid down in 1989 by the then Chairman  Kevin Pickard and Secretary Tony Atherton.  They set up the Ground Development Fund where Club members contribute 50p per week through the playing season. In addition, over the last two years the Club has asked the Members to pay a signing-on fee to boost this fund to pay the Club's contribution to the overall planned Lottery financial bid.
The Ground Development Fund was designed to give Clough a home of our own and purchase land for pitches, (no land in this area was ever found to purchase).  With the introduction of the lottery in 1995, the need for a Club base took preference and the Lottery Bid came to the fore, and accordingly, the Howden Clough Lottery Bid is progressing through its development stages.It was expected to take six years over all, this schedule has been kept to, and is now nearing completion. 
The Lottery Bid process is a very exhausting process which requires people to spend hours and hours every week attending meetings, assembling quotations, writing joint agreements with all the beurocracy involved.
Yvonne Walker has done this and has pulled all the different strings together in the formation the Howden Clough bid.
Our previous secretary has also had a big role in the technical operation literally planning everything from the front door to the roof. The back up team are Malcolm Murray, Sue Ford, Trevor Brice and new Treasurer Mike Drewery. 
The Lottery Bid is headed by Howden Clough JFC in partnership with Howden Clough Girls High School and Batley Sports and Tennis Centre. The scheme as the backing of Kirklees MBC and the Batley Sports Council.
Basically the aim of the Bid is to give Howden Clough a home and base. This will consist of changing rooms, a meeting room, toilets, showers in a complex which will be built onto the side of the Sports Centre.  Also in the proposals are plans to make an Astroturf pitch, drain the two soccer pitches on Upper Batley Lane and add two further junior-size pitches .
The use of the facilities, if the Bid is successful, will be divided between the three partners in the bid
The Girls will have use during the weekday in school term time, the football club during the evening and at the weekends and the Sports Centre will also use any unallocated time for community use.
Due to the imminent completion and presentation of the Bid, we do not want to give out any other figures on cost .
All we can do now is hope that all the hard work done by the Development team and the financial backing given by all members together with the different fund raising events will pay off with a successful bid.         

 Football Foundation Grant:  (Feb 2002)
Our application has been welcomed by the FA with one site meeting already held with the FA Project Officer. The club has covered the criteria and all that is required is the technical side (Drainage, Architects, Head Of Terms etc) of the bid to be sanctioned. The FA, Trust, Kirklees Council, Education Department are all working very hard alongside Clough to make our bid successful. Once we have the decision we will let you all know. "Lets hope its Party Time".

GROUND DEVELOPMENT (Oct 2002)
No news yet on our bid to the football Foundation for the new changing rooms, Astra turf floodlight pitch and upgraded football pitches, but if they are parting with three quarters of a million pounds it probably takes longer than we would hope!. When we hear the outcome of our bid we will let you know as soon as possible. We have been successful with one grant for drainage work on the mini soccer pitches and this was carried out during the summer. The total cost was £9400 with the grant of £4875 the club pay £4875. We have also been successful with our application to the Barclaycard Free Kicks grant, this has enabled us to have an away strip for all players from U7 through to Open age. We have also applied to Awards For All to help with our new coaching program. We should hear from them shortly.

 

Dec 04
Howden Clough are one of the partners together with The Football Foundation, Kirklees Council Culture and Leisure Services, LEA Kirklees Active Leisure, Howden Clough Girls High School who have been successful with the bid for the Astra Turf and coming new changing rooms.

Howden Clough Secretary Yvonne Walker has guided this whole project through to fruition.

“We are very proud of the new facilities and whilst it has been eight years of hard work with many setbacks our players and officials past and present together with parents have all supported this project with fund raising events and a great deal of patience!. We hope everyone will join us at the official launch on January 29th 2005“. Sec Yvonne Walker
 
 "KIRKLEES HIT THE FUNDING JACKPOT"
Headlines from Football Foundation web site Press release.  LINK
KIRKLEES, HOWDEN CLOUGH GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL AND HOWDEN CLOUGH JFC SECURE FUNDING FOR NEW FACILITIES WITH A GRANT FOR £508,987  MORE
 
 

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