Funding boosts given to Whanganui sports clubs from $321,936 gaming machine pool

The Whanganui Community Bike Park will be upgraded with funding from the New Zealand Community Trust. Photograph by Stuart Munro.

Community grants are being given to Whanganui sports clubs to upgrade infrastructure, with the money coming from gaming machine profits.

The largest grants for Whanganui in the latest funding from the New Zealand Community Trust (NZCT) were given to the Whanganui Mountain Bike Club and the Whanganui Bowling Club.

A grant of $45,000 was given to the bowling club for a green replacement and $39,634 was awarded to the mountain bike club to reseal the track at the Whanganui Community Bike Park.

President of the Whanganui Mountain Bike Club, Stuart White, said the track was “starting to break down”, with the edges of the course needing to be rebuilt and the water drainage system requiring reviewing.

“It’s now five years old and it’s had an incredible amount of use, it’s very popular.”

Patching was completed on the track before the summer season to stop further deterioration, and White said the track was highly used over the school holiday period.

“It will be out of use for a period whilst it’s being resealed.”

White said the track designer would examine the course next week then begin reshaping it, and after that a contractor would start the resealing work.

“From our perspective it’s not only about mountain biking, it’s about just giving anybody confidence to handle a range of conditions on their bike.”

White said the Whanganui Mountain Bike Club was hoping the track would be ready in May but this was weather-permitting.

The Whanganui Indoor Bowlers Association was given $4,000 to cover the cost of hiring a hall and the Wanganui Table Tennis Association was awarded $8,000 for venue hire.

The Kaierau Rugby Football Club was given $7,162 for playing uniforms.

The total sum of the grants given by the NZCT to organisations in the Manawatū-Whanganui region was $321,936.

The Whanganui local gaming venues that contributed to the grants were Shotz, Stellar Bar, Tandoori Bite, Caroline’s Boatshed and Castlecliff Hotel.