Organisers of the Phoenix Project were awarded a £500,000 presentation cheque by Big Lottery officials last week.

Members of the project’s Design Team, along with a representative of Pembrokeshire County Council’s Community Regeneration Unit, met with Big Lottery officials at Fishguard and Goodwick Sports Club to confirm details of the new centre’s specifications and funding.

At the meeting Niah Jones, Big Lottery Case Officer, gave the committee a presentation cheque for £500,000.

The scheme is the brainchild of Fishguard & Goodwick Sports Club and aims to provide much needed changing facilities for local sports clubs, plus meeting and function rooms for community use.

The new centre will also have a community cafe and bar, open for public use.

The project has already received over 20 expressions of interest from construction companies wanting to tender for the main contract.

Tom Kinver, head of the Design Team said they anticipated confirmation of the main contractor by January 2010 with demolition of the old clubhouse to take place by April.

"We expect it will take about 12 months to construct the new building which will hopefully be ready for use by sports clubs and the community by May 2011," he said.

John Deason, Chairman of Fishguard & Goodwick Sports Club said they were continuing to raise funds locally to supplement the grants they had received from the Big Lottery, Welsh Assembly Government and Pembrokeshire County Council.

"The rugby, football, tennis and cricket clubs, as well as the Goodwick Brass Band, have all committed to make significant capital contributions. However, we still need to cover any shortfall by local fundraising. I would therefore urge your readers to support our Buy a Brick scheme and purchase £5 virtual bricks for the new build.

"Nearly 400 local residents and community groups have already contributed £8,000 and over the next 18 months, as the new centre is being built, we aim to increase this Buy a Brick total to £50,000," he said.

Anyone wishing to support the project can log onto the project’s new website www.phoenixcentre.info which goes online next week and which will have a ‘Paypal’ facility for direct donations. Alternatively bricks can be bought at the old sports club-house, which is open at the weekends on Friday evenings, all day on Saturdays and Sunday lunchtimes. During the week the clubhouse is also open on Monday and Thursday evenings. Anyone wanting to find out more about our project is invited to attend a public meeting, which will be held at the sports club on Friday 16 October at 7pm.