Boxing club's future secure 'for next 100 years'

A veteran boxing trainer has said a £700,000 funding boost will secure his club's future for the next 100 years.

George Rhodes has coached at the Westway Boxing Club, in Eastfield, Scarborough, for more than 30 years.

He was speaking after North Yorkshire Council announced plans to put £350,000 towards the club's redevelopment plans, the other £350,000 coming from Scarborough-based Broadland Properties.

Rhodes said: "My dream all those years ago was to bring boxing back to Eastfield – this brings the club into the 21st Century and keeps it secure for years to come."

Broadland director Richard Guthrie said: "The Westway Boxing Club is a shining light. This is a really good news project."

The council's funding is expected to be approved when its decision-making executive board meets on 16 June.

A report said the redevelopment work would include extra gym space, a main training hall with full size boxing ring, toilets, changing areas, a cafe, classrooms and storage space.

"The project will double the club's capacity, expand provision for young people and vulnerable adults, and create space for alternative education and specialist programmes including a project for people with Parkinson's disease," the council's head of localities, Marie-Ann Jackson, wrote.

Rhodes said: "This isn't about one person, it's a community project. I'm leaving it with the younger coaches, Ryan Ashworth and James Cliffe, and our great committee members. They will take the place into the future now."

Ashworth said news of this investment was "just the beginning," as the coaches and the committee members have "grand plans" for The Westway's future.

He added: "We want to continue being an amazing club at grassroots level, using the power of boxing to improve people's mental health, physical fitness and help people stay out of trouble.

"We have so much happening - our youngest member is nine years old, the oldest is 86, and I feel like the luckiest man alive to be working full-time here.

"With this bigger and better facility, things at The Westway can only get bigger and better."

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