Having analysed the fairly limited financial reports from the Council, detailing the income and operating costs of the Sports Centre, it became patently obvious to the Darvel Community Trust that the Sports Centre was not viable in its current condition and under current management, frankly it’s no wonder that the Council wishes to dispose of it.
What also became clear following the initial public survey and throughout the consultation exercise was that the primary reasons for the current failure of the facility are directly related to the deteriorating nature of the facility, its limited hours of operation and the sparse services offered within it.
Following the award of a Feasibility Study grant in summer 2015, the Trust appointed Glasgow based www.collectivearchitecture.com to undertake the Feasibility Study. Collective has a strong track record in delivering exciting plans for community facility development projects and have assisted many organisations similar to our Trust to deliver transformation projects; from developing plans, to securing planning permission, securing funding, project management and commissioning.
Transformation……. a visionary word and a facility that requires a visionary plan. We are excited to finally be able to make the designs available for the community to view and comment on as we need the community to buy into the vision for the Sports Centre as it’s transformed from a decaying sports hall into a 21st century community facility that all members of our community are enticed to use.
The best buildings make an impression from the outside and attract people to the vicinity and their outside spaces. Extensive landscaping will transform the site, improve visibility around the building, make it appealing from the kerbside and attract people in. To the east side there will be major changes with the poorly drained football pitch being replaced with an all-weather multi-sports 3G pitch. The existing mugga pitch will be retained but moved to open out the area immediately adjacent to the building. In this transformed space there will be an outdoor patio area, to allow a café and social space and to the south an extended skate park.
