500 club for Bishop's Castle leisure centre

The Save the SpArC group, which supports the SpArC leisure centre in Bishop's castle, is now an official charity and has been looking at news to raise money in recent weeks, including meeting with representatives from Sport England and Energise Shropshire – and discussing the idea of a "500 club" that people can sign up to for regular prize draws.

The group is also calling for more volunteers to come forward to help out with the ongoing drive to raise money and generally support making the SpArC viable for the future.

The centre has now been included in a revised draft of Shropshire Council’s indoor leisure strategy, indicating it will be in line have continued support from the authority after previous fears it would lose all council funding and have to close as a result.

But Save the SpArC campaigners have said supporters must not be complacent as the strategy is still in draft form with the level of funding from Shropshire Council not agreed, and whatever happens the centre is certain to need to find money and support from outside sources to remain viable.

Ruth Houghton, speaking for the group, said trustees had recently met with Ian Silvera from Sport England and Chris Child, the chief executive of Energize Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin to discuss possible help.

She said Mr Silvera outlined Sport's England's new focus on getting hard to reach sectors of society more active, with a one billion pound fund to cover the next four years for the whole UK.

"He identified some particular grant opportunities and that was really helpful and informative," she said.

Meanwhile Chris Child focussed on the particular needs of South West Shropshire with its ageing population and said he would be in Bishops Castle for the day on May 31 to speak to members of the public at Enterprise House.

But another fund stream for the centre might come in the form of a new members group, which people pay to join, where half the money will go toward the SpArC and half toward prize draw held at regular prize draw, often known a 500 club.

Mrs Houghton said: "We are hoping by the end of the year to launch a 500 club. For people interested we will be putting out information about it on social media in the near future," she said.

She said it was the trustees were also looking to widen the SpArC group to include more people.

"We'd always like to have more volunteers to participate in things," she said.

The new draft of the Shropshire Council's indoor leisure strategy for the next 20 years was released in March showed six leisure centre "hubs", including Shrewsbury, Oswestry, Ludlow as before, but also adding Bishop’s Castle, Bridgnorth and Market Drayton.