A COMMUNITY sports centre has received funding to help during the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

Brandon Sports Club received a grant of £4,800 from Mid Durham Area Action Partnership to help secure its future.

The club, which is home to a number of sports clubs, including Brandon Cricket Club, Brandon Boxing Club, Brandon Junior Football Club and Brandon SC Senior Football Club, as well as many social and community groups, has been forced to close during the pandemic, and estimated that it would lose £40,000 in income over three months.

Despite responding quickly to the situation, furloughing its two members of staff and applying for a small business grant to help offset the loss, the club realised that additional support was needed.

The club contacted Mid-Durham AAP to explain the situation and the partnership agreed to support the venue, to ensure its future and that of the variety of sports clubs and community groups who use the club on a regular basis.

Club treasurer and chairman of cricket Ian Johnson said: “We like to think we are a well-run club maintaining reasonable cash reserves but without the help of this grant, our hard-earned cash would have disappeared by mid-April with no income to pay our bills. The grant is a lifeline and a boost to our many volunteers.”

Durham County Council has given £1.4 million of coronavirus financial assistance funding to its AAPs, for them to allocate to projects in their respective areas who need support during the pandemic.

Gordon Elliott, the council’s head of partnerships and community engagement, said: “County Durham is home to some great facilities, offering a variety of activities for their local communities to get involved in. Having built these up in recent years it would be a travesty if they were to have to close and have all their work and ambitions dashed.

“The loss of any of our community facilities would have a major impact on local people, so our AAPs are committed to supporting local organisations through the Coronavirus outbreak and beyond, to ensure they are available to communities in the future.”