The Shildon community has celebrated the official opening of a new community garden created on waste land inside the ground of Shildon Football Club.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on Thursday, 14 April, and attended by community leaders, funding partners, representatives from the Northern Premier League and Shildon AFC staff.
The community garden has been created to provide an all-year-round outdoor facility for the local community.
Shildon AFC Chairman, David Dent said: “This is a special day for myself, my family, and the club.
“I came back to Shildon to build a successful football club and to put something back into the town I grew up in.
“Thanks to Buildbase and our partners, we now have an asset which the whole community can use and with our new CIC, we will extend even further our reach into the local community, making Shildon AFC a true community football club.”
A community interest company (Shildon AFC CIC) has been set up to manage the facility and a Community Development Officer appointed to further integrate the garden into the local community.
Funding for the garden was made possible by the club’s successful bid to the Buildbase Community Club Award, which resulted in an award of £25,000.
The club was also successful in achieving funding from the councillors’ Neighbourhood Budget, which is administered by the Bishop Auckland and Shildon Area Action Partnership.
Construction of the community garden was completed by Westholme Construction.
Children have already been using the garden this week as part of the Easter Holiday Activities scheme which provides sporting activities alongside a healthy breakfast and lunch.
The opening ceremony also marked the final day of activities which once again proved extremely popular. Every child participating was awarded a medal, t-shirt and Easter egg, all presented by Shildon AFC Manager, Daniel Moore.
Shildon & District's local community newspaper.
