Town to decide

Councillors have decided to call a meeting before committing an estimated £150,000 which would have to be paid for by a precept on the council tax. The date of the meeting was expected to be set at the town council's monthly meeting last night.

The centre, in Kinwarton Road, has been promised £800,000 from Stratford District Council which finally approved a business plan for the sports hall and community space.

Further funding has been secured from other sources including a lottery grant but trustees are still short of the £1.2m needed to revamp the gym and extend the present sports hall.

Centre director Stacy Robinson told the Chronicle town council funding was vital for the project which he hoped the townspeople would support.

"The district council has agreed to give us the £800,000 at least but it is dependent on us getting funding from other sources. We knew the town council was due to discuss it at the planning meeting last week but we haven't heard anything from them."

The Greig Centre trustees also applied to Stratford District Council's Arden Area committee for revenue funding to help run the centre for the next few years but the application was turned down in January.

An amended application will be submitted in March.

Mr Robinson said: "We need them to give us a leg up for the next three years because our plan shows that we won't be making profit until 2009."

The original building is not included in the funding, though a feasibility study is due to begin soon to assess how much needs to be spent there to improve facilities such as kitchen and toilets.

A FREDDIE Mercury tribute concert at the Greig Centre on Friday was better supported than previous events, but still lost about £170 according to Mr Robinson.

"We had about 50 people turn up, which is better than only one or two.

"And although we lost £170, that's better than the £700 we lost from Kylie Likely and £250 from the Blues Brothers," the centre director added.