The residential division of the Eric Wright Group, Applethwaite, has pledged £4,000 towards a new state-of-the-art sports community park in Whalley, Lancashire.
The company has made a voluntary contribution of £500 for each of the bungalows built on its Lamb Roe development in the village. The eight, three-bedroom detached homes, (off Clitheroe Road), offer modern retirement living specifically designed for the over 55’s.
The Whalley Sports Community Park will transform the existing Queen Elizabeth II playing fields and Whalley Sports Club. Spearheaded by local businessman and project chairman, Jon Smith, the sports complex follows years of campaigning from local villagers for modern sports facilities and is regarded as one of the ‘biggest projects’ for local facilities in Whalley.
Jon Smith added “We really appreciate the £4,000 contribution from the Eric Wright Group’s house building division, Applethwaite. We are hoping that all of the other developers who have obtained planning permission to build in our beautiful village will act in exactly the same community minded way. We were happy to make the trip to Eric Wright’s office to explain our aims and the ethos of the whole project; we are just trying to create decent, affordable sports and leisure facilities for our children and for the whole community.”
Colin Hetherington, director of Applethwaite, said: “The Eric Wright Group has always been a developer that recognises its broader obligations to the community in which it operates. We decided to make this gesture to help support what we believe will be a fantastic facility which will certainly benefit the Whalley community for years to come.”
More than £200,000 has been raised to-date and the project is due to complete in 2018.
Brian Cookson OBE (left), Jon Smith (right)