NATIONAL Lottery bosses gave Chipping Norton the perfect Christmas present yesterday (Wednesday) with a £2.64million grant for its long-awaited new sports centre.
The dual use centre will be built at Chipping Norton School and the National Sports Lottery Fund chose this week to make its final decision on the grant.
The news was greeted with delight by bid organisers. School headteacher Richard Graydon said: "This is wonderful news for everyone in and around Chipping Norton. Pupils at the school will enjoy the best sporting facilities at any school in the county and people in the local community will have an excellent sports centre on their doorstep."
His joy was echoed at West Oxfordshire District Council, which is contributing £1,932,280 towards the cost of the centre. Roger Sheridan, head of leisure and tourism, said: "This is really good news. It is becoming harder and harder to get Sports Lottery funding and to achieve more than £2.6million is a significant boost for sport in the district."
The school is paying £100,000, the county council £19,000 and local fund-raising will provide another £15,000, taking the final sum to more than £4.7 million. It includes a new pelican crossing on Burford Road outside the school.
Work on the scheme will start in January and should be finished by spring 2002.
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