Oswestry Cricket Club getting £6,000 funding to help stop balls going onto busy road
Oswestry Town Council is to allocate £6,000 of funding to the town's cricket club on the proviso they provide training sessions in schools.
The cricket club needs to put up 200 metres of fencing to stop cricket balls going out of the ground and onto the busy nearby Morda Road.
It needs £16,000 for the eight metre high nets and had approached the council for £8,000 allocated out of its grant funding budget to complete the first phase. The funds in the budget until April 1 stand at £9,300.
A meeting of the town council heard that the cricket club had £50,000 in its accounts and there was concern that any money allocated should be awarded on the basis of them providing community projects.
Councillor Olly Rose said she thought the full amount asked for was a lot given the financial position of the club and that she was keen to see them "give something back" to the community.
She said: "I think they are an important asset to the town but I do think we need to make sure the children of the town are getting something out of the sport whether that be training or being able to play down at the club.
"They are in quite a good good financial position and there is also quite a bit of funding available from the cricketing sporting bodies so I find it a bit surprising they haven't explored those avenues."
Councillor Les Maguire said the club did hire rooms out to local groups but also did a lot of work in the community and that he felt the council "should be fully supporting them" in that work.
The motion was passed to fund them with a £6,000 grant as long as the club committed to holding at least 20 sessions of cricket training with local schools.
