£80,000 appeal for new Scout hut

By lmale

CUBS and scouts who have met in a dilapidated 50-year-old ex-chicken shed for the past 28 years are undertaking a massive fundraising venture to build themselves a new home.

The 1st Woodcutts group has met in the ramshackle shed at a field on the edge of Sixpenny Handley since 1981 after scout leader John Curtis hauled the second hand home there from Marnhull on the back of a tractor. But time has taken its toll and the shed is now beyond repair .

Damp, burst pipes and rot have got the worst of the building, even to the point where akela Andy Young is forced to mop up water from the leaking ceilings an hour before meetings.

"There's constant water damage here. We've had leaks in the roof where pipes have burst. The toilets are also breaking, there's very little heating and the cooker has blown.

"With Health and Safety rulings we cannot afford to keep going and we don't want to like this," he said.

Times have got so bad that boards now block up holes in the walls while cardboard is taped into the smashed windows.

The hut is used two nights a week by cubs, scouts, beavers and explorers and is also used at weekends by other community groups.

Six-year-old Beaver Georgia Burleigh said the hut was cold in the winter.

"It's falling down and sometimes you feel you don't want to be there. You just want to go home," she said.

Ned Goodridge, six, said the hut looked very old. "The new place will be a lot nicer. The windows won't be broken," he said.

Now, the 80-member group is embarking on a £80,000 appeal to build a new meeting place on the old site. They have just received planning permission from East Dorset District Council and have already raised £25,000 toward their target.

Fundraisers have organised darts nights, fireworks displays, raffles and sponsored events to generate much-needed cash. The group has even litter picked at the Larmer Tree Festival to raise its profile and Sixpenny Handley festival, Endorse It In Dorset, has put on benefit gigs for them.

Leaders and fundraisers are currently coordinating grant applications and are waiting for the results.

Mr Young said the group had blossomed in recent years and hoped its success would be reflected in its fundraising efforts.

"Today we have an almost fifty-fifty split of boys and girls.

"We introduced the Beavers and the Explorers four years ago and we are now in desperate need of a home that will last another 50 years," he said.

Laura Male

lmale@bvmedia.co.uk