£300k for Welsh community hub

£300,000 of Welsh Government funding has transformed Ponthir’s local Sports and Community club into a vibrant multi-use facility supporting sport, education, and community life.

Ponthir Sports and Community Club in Torfaen has used the funding to build a brand-new clubhouse with flexible rooms for community use, and to convert the original building into four modern changing rooms.

The carpark has also been resurfaced to make the site more accessible and welcoming.

More than £309,000 has come from the Welsh Government’s Community Facilities Programme, with additional funding coming from local fundraising and other funders such as the England Cricket Board (Cricket Wales), Cymru Football Foundation and the Millennium Stadium Trust.

Cricket has been played at the club since 1881 and football for more than 50 years. Now it hosts 20 sports teams, including nine girls’ football squads, senior and junior cricket, veterans’ sides and boules teams.

The club also hosts modern languages classes, children’s cookery workshops, quiz nights, a community café and pantry.

The Club’s Chair, Ollie Eastman, said: "Welsh Government funding has helped us transform what we can offer. We now have spaces that work for everyone, whether you're here to take part in sports and keep active, learn a language or have a cup of tea with neighbours. It’s truly a space built by the community, for the community.

Goalkeeper for one of the girl's football teams, 16-year-old Nia Matthews, said: "As someone who has been a part of the Ponthir community their whole life, it’s been so wonderful to experience the club thriving as it is now. I’ve been playing football for Ponthir for quite a few years and to see the development of the club lead to so many improvements elsewhere within the community is really special. The club is so important because it gives people of all ages somewhere to go to be active, if they want, or to just interact with other people in our community, and I think that’s really great."