Howard's way for rugby club
THE man who designed the plans for the brand new £4m facility at Silver Royd knew exactly how to tackle the project.
Howard Acklam has been involved with the club for over 50 years and is an Architectual Technologist with his own business in the town and is a former first-team player and club president.
Acklam, 62, said:"It is a very exciting time for not only rugby in the town but sport in general and the new facility looks superb.
"The amount of work which has gone into achieving this new facility has been exceptional and it will be something the town can be proud of.
"I have been with the club over 50 years and with the nature of my work being what it is I have been involved with the ideas and plans for development going back 20 years.
"It was a natural progression that I ended up drawing up the plans for Silver Royd and as a former player and president of the club I am very proud of what has been achieved."
Acklam has not been the only one heavily involved with creating the new facility and he had many people to thank for their efforts.
He added: "Graeme Young has been the Project Manager for this move and without him we would still be to to three years away from having a new ground.
"The amount of work he has put in has been immense so credit to him. We also can't forget the likes of President Colin Rennard, President-Elect John Guthrie, the club committee, among many, many others, as well as the contractors and the help of the local authority.
"Then there have been the people who put in fundraising efforts to help out including the bus pull around the Marine Drive which created a lot of publicity and raised a good deal of funds."
The club has been based at Newby since 1926 and several options for a new home were considered over the past 20 years as the club grew in terms of teams at both senior, junior and mini levels.
Acklam said: "As numbers increased and the need for more and better facilites increased. Back in 1987 the club made proposals to move to a new site on Red Scar Lane, only a few hundred metres from the Showground but that never came to fruition.
"And just four years later the club submitted a proposal to build a clubhouse at the Silver Royd training ground but this too was refused by the Borough Council.
"Not giving in, in 2001 the club applied to rebuild its clubhouse at the Newby base along with a scheme to develop an area of land bounding the Scalby School playing field adjacent to Linden Road and although the project clubhouse received planning approval it did not go through. Because of objections of local residents the additional playing areas were not forthcoming.
“In 2003/2004 a proposal to move was floated in committee yet again and several sites within a five-mile radius of the Showground were explored.
“Discussions then took place with the landowners adjacent to the club’s existing pitches at Silver Royd, the Duchy Of Lancaster and these were fruitful.
“This led to a lot of work prior to both our planning application for the land north of Silver Royd and proposed sale of the premises at Newby.
“The planning application was approved and the ground at Newby was sold for a private hospital and medical village.
“We started work on the new ground back in March and now we are almost ready for the big move.”
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Weather for Scarborough
Saturday 04 February 2012
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