A brand new sports and community building, The Pavilion, costing £2.8 million, opened in January 2007.

There was a football tournament and sports taster sessions on 18 February at Stonebridge Recreation Ground, Hillside, London NW10 8LW to mark this special occasion.

The football match involved a celebrities’ team lead by Luther Blissett - former England, Watford and AC Milan player and now a football pundit – versus a locals’ pavilion team, a cross bar challenge, football shooting speed tunnel, basket ball and tennis as well as a tour of the building.

There was a brief speeches by the guests of honour Councillor Bertha Joseph, Mayor of Brent and Dawn Butler, Brent South MP. Representatives from Hillside Housing Trust, Stonebridge Housing Action Trust, Stonebridge Youth Forum, funding partners, contractors and stakeholders were also present.

Hillside Housing Trust received the go-ahead for the major development works on Stonebridge Recreation Ground following a Brent Council planning meeting in early November 2005. Nigel Swanton, Principal Development Manager at Hillside said: “We have spent three years working closely with the local community and funding agencies to achieve this successful outcome.”

The building and land development consists of:

•a wonderful new pavilion housing a reception area, office, changing rooms, café, multi-purpose hall, training rooms and viewing terrace

•state-of-the-art artificial sports pitches (Multi-Use Games Areas) with new floodlighting and fencing

•a refurbished grass pitch

•a cycle route

Work on The Pavilion and artificial sports pitches took 12 months to finish. The grass pitch will be ready by spring 2007.

The Pavilion development brought in more than £1.5 million of external funding from the following stakeholders - Football Foundation, European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Big Lottery Fund, London Marathon Charitable Trust, The Veolia Environmental Trust, Sport England and London Borough of Brent. Stonebridge Housing Action Trust funded the shortfall in development and building costs. The project contractor was Durkan Pudelek Limited assisted by Eger Architects.

ENDS

For further information please contact Ade Adeniji, Hillside Housing Trust, Communications Officer, on:Tel:  020 8963 4978 Email:  ade.adeniji@hillsidehousing.co.uk

NOTES TO THE EDITOR

1.Hillside Housing Trust, a Registered Social Landlord managing the regeneration of Stonebridge on behalf of the landlord, Stonebridge HAT, is providing community facilities as part of a major transformation of Stonebridge estate. Hillside is part of The Hyde Group (see 2).

Principal Development Manager for Hillside, Nigel Swanton said: “We are delighted that the young people of Stonebridge will have an exciting and vibrant centre where they can realise their full potential in sport and associated project based activities.”

During the half term holidays (19 to 23 February) there will be taster sessions of hockey, netball and tag rugby, in addition to football, at The Pavilion.

2.The Hyde Group – creating thriving communities

The Hyde Group is a leading provider of affordable housing. We make a significant contribution to meeting housing needs and improving people’s quality of life. Hyde is one of the largest housing association groups working in London and the South East, providing housing and related services to over 75,000 people

More about Hyde can be found at www.hyde-housing.co.uk

3.The Football Foundation is dedicated to revitalising the grass roots of the game, constructing modern football facilities, developing football as a force for social cohesion and as a vehicle for education in communities throughout the country.

Peter Lee, Chief Executive of the Football Foundation, welcomed The Pavilion as a boost for grass roots football in Brent: “This fantastic new development is testament to everyone concerned with this project, the County FA, local partners and the Football Foundation staff, but especially the people in the Brent community who thoroughly deserve the new pavilion and pitches.

Funded by the FA Premier League, The Football Association, Sport England and the Government, the Football Foundation is the nation’s largest sports charity with a £45m budget going straight into the heart of football.

4.The Big Lottery Fund distributes half of all National Lottery good cause funding across the UK. The fund aims to enable others to make real improvements to the lives of disadvantaged people and the wellbeing of communities, through fair and open funding of people, projects and programmes.

5.Margaret Cobbold, General Manager of The Veolia Environmental Trust, which awarded the project £35,000 under the Landfill Communities Fund, said: “The Trust works to support projects looking to improve, or as in this instance, build new sports facilities and The Pavilion is an excellent example of how the Landfill Communities Fund can make a difference to people’s lives.”

The Veolia Environmental Trust - Under the Landfill Communities Fund, registered landfill site operators can donate a percentage of their landfill tax liability in return for a tax credit. This credit is available to environmental bodies to fund mainly environmental, community and restoration projects. Landfill operators are currently permitted to donate up to 6.7% of their landfill tax liability.

The Trust is a registered charity and an approved Environmental Body formed under the Landfill Tax Regulations. For more information or to find out how to apply for funding, visit the Trust’s website www.veoliatrust.org

Veolia Environmental Services (UK) plc has supported this initiative by contributions to The Veolia Environmental Trust in excess of £31 million of landfill tax to more than 640 projects nationwide.

6.Andy Sacha, Interim Regional Director Sport England, said of Sport England’s community lottery investment of £31,789 towards the Multi-Use Games Area at The Pavilion: “This is fantastic news for the people of Stonebridge. We are very excited that Sport England community lottery investment will help bring alive the outdoor Multi-Use Games Area to help create a more active local community in Stonebridge.”

Sport England is working to create an active nation through sport, providing advice to partners, investing in community sport and promoting sport and its benefits. Our aim is to increase the number of people participating in sport and active recreation by two million by 2012, with a specific focus on hard to reach groups that are currently under-represented.

Sport England is a non-departmental public body that distributes both Lottery and public funding to develop community sport.

Sport England has nine Regional Sports Boards (RSBs), each made up of experts from areas such as business, local government, sport, health and education. The RSBs provide the strategic lead for sport in their regions and distribute investment for community sport.

7.FunderCapital

Football Foundation        £1,000,000

ERDF    £       251,293

Big Lottery Fund        £       125,000

London Marathon Charitable Trust £   100,000

The Veolia Environmental Trust  £     35,000

Sport England            £31,789

London Borough of Brent    £     29,992

TOTAL        £1,573,074