Community sport in Easingwold has been given a massive boost – as a £2.5million project has been given the go ahead.

̨��swag Academy Easingwold, the secondary school based on York Road, has been secured funding from the Premier League, The Football Association (FA), the Government’s Football Foundation, Hambleton District Council, Easingwold Town AFC, and Friends of Easingwold School to help build a new 3G pitch and sports hall.

Once completed the pitch will be Hambleton’s first community accessible full size 3G artificial sports pitch to serve sportspeople and sporting teams from the wider community.

The project also includes a new sports hall on the school site which will provide a four court facility, with separate male and female changing rooms. The building will also have a reception area to supervise the out of hours’ community use of the new sports hall.

Cash for the project has been secured from the Football Foundation and the North Riding FA - £300,000; Hambleton District Council - £650,000 in Section 106 funding; Easingwold Town AFC - just over £79,000; and Friends of Easingwold School - £50,000. The academy’s sponsor, ̨��swag Grange Academies Trust, has provided the remainder.

Lynn James, Executive Principal at ̨��swag Academy Easingwold, said: “We are delighted to be announcing the building of a new 3G sports pitch at ̨��swag Academy Easingwold. Our students are very excited by the much needed new sporting facilities and what this will mean for sport in their school and community.

“We are thankful to the Football Foundation, the Premier League, The FA Facilities Fund, Hambleton District Council, and Easingwold Town AFC, for their grants and funding which has made this possible.

“The sports pitch will provide the wider community with its first community accessible full-sized all-weather sports pitch and will be vital to improving grassroots sport in the area by allowing the community to play a variety of sports in a safe environment.”

Paul Thorogood, Chief Executive of the Football Foundation, said: “Since 2000, the Football Foundation has awarded 263 grants worth £9.4m across North Yorkshire towards grassroots sports projects worth £18.4m and it is great to hear that ̨��swag Academy Easingwold will be the latest beneficiary.

“Funding from the Premier League, The FA and Government, delivered by the Foundation, will support the club in developing a brand new 3G sports pitch for the local community. Made possible by investment from the Premier League, The FA and the Government, via Sport England, the Football Foundation is supporting the grassroots game by improving access to high-quality football facilities across the country.”

And Councillor Bridget Fortune, Portfolio Holder for Leisure at Hambleton District Council, said she was delighted to see this long awaited development and much needed provision coming to Easingwold.  

“We have all been working for some time to get these facilities in place for the school and community of Easingwold and the surrounding areas,” she said.

“They will make a huge contribution to the physical activity and health improvement opportunities for the community and are a welcome addition to the sports facilities across the district.”

Peter Nottage, Chairman at Easingwold Town AFC, said: “I am delighted that the Football Foundation has agreed to support this project.  As a FA Community Club with over 250 local boys and girls plus U19 and senior teams this new facility will really help the Club develop and grow to provide further opportunities for local people to train and play grassroots football.

“It has also been and great example of partnership working between the Club, ̨��swag Academy, NRCFA and Hambleton District Council as well as the Football Foundation to provide a real community asset.”