Vote For Us - Your Fund Surrey

Background

Anyone who has been involved with Woking RFC knows that we are the friendliest club in Surrey and have always enjoyed playing and training for rugby together. We have the use of two superb pitches at Byfleet Rec, which on a Saturday yield moments of sporting glory. These typically grow even more heroic as the evenings wear on and have given us all some fantastic memories over the years. However, we all know the practical difficulties the club must manage:

• Training in the dark, or close to
• Occasionally flooded pitches
• The chest-height, lukewarm at best showers
• An insufficient number of changing rooms to comfortably host two home games, let alone develop the club for youth and female teams
• The disruption after the match of relocating a mile away for the celebrations, and the loss of atmosphere when the opposition decides 'it’s too much hassle' and goes home early
• A lack of opportunity to develop sustainable income to develop and future proof the club

Looking To The Future

There is now an opportunity to solve all that. One that needs the entire Woking RFC community from past and present players, parents, partners, friends, and relatives to come together. In recent weeks Surrey County Council has launched a £100m project 'Your Fund Surrey', in an unprecedented move to give power and influence to local communities across the county.

The Fund is designed to give financial backing to projects submitted by residents and community groups that will enhance their local area, with people encouraged to ‘Think Big’ and that is what the current committee of the club are doing.

Funding will be allocated to projects based on a variety of criteria which includes having substantial community support. We are therefore asking for everyone to take this opportunity to support the club.

By supporting our expression of interest to Surrey County Council we hope that the club will be able to take the first step in the long journey towards the development of a new clubhouse, a place we can call our home. A facility that not only benefits the rugby club but one that also has a positive impact on the community. A facility with state of the art all weather pitches, floodlights and changing facilities. All at Byfleet Rec.

It will only take you a few seconds to vote and it will genuinely help the club. We need as much support as possible to get to the next stages. It would be even better if you can advocate our case by spreading the word and getting others in the county involved as well.

We are also open to suggestions and any ideas or suggestions of community groups that would be interested in collaborating with us - please let myself or members of the committee know. This is a genuinely exciting opportunity for Woking Rugby Club.

I sincerely hope you can help us make the first few steps in making our vision become a reality.

Jon Hursthouse
Chairman
Woking RFC