Scouts settle into home
The new £360,000 headquarters for Ollerton Scouts, Cubs, Brownies and Guides is now in full use, the annual meeting was told on Friday.
The activity centre on Back Lane, Ollerton, took four years to complete and includes a large main hall, kitchen, offices, storage space, disabled toilet and a smaller meeting room.
The leader of the guides, Mrs Rachel Skelton, said the Guides were enjoying using the new building.
She said: “It’s been absolutely brilliant and just being able to be in our own space and to have our equipment around us makes a great difference.
“We used to meet at Walesby Scout Centre, which was good in some respects because the children could run around and enjoy the outdoors, but when you don’t have your own regular meeting space you end up carrying all the equipment around with you, which makes life harder.
“Being in the new hall makes it easier to offer activities that run over a period of weeks because we can leave equipment there.
“Once we’ve got the outside space sorted it would be brilliant but it is just a case now of waiting for the right time of year to do that.”
Mrs Skelton said being in the same centre was good for the Brownies because girls who were moving up to the Guides could get to know her before they joined the Guides.
The leader of the Cubs, Mr Derek Taylor, said he was able to offer the Cubs more activities since they moved into the centre.
He said: “The new hall has a kitchen facility so we can offer cooking and baking and things like that, and if we want to split up into groups we can take groups into different rooms to work separately.
“The Cubs think the building is fantastic.”
Mr Taylor said the number of children joining had risen since they moved to the new centre.
He said: “Being where we are in Ollerton, people can walk up to it so it is easier for more people to get to.”
Mr Taylor said he hoped in the future computers and Internet access could be provided in the building.
The chairman of the Scout and Guide group, Mrs June Yates, said other community groups were also using the headquarters.
She said: “We’re looking to introduce a bowling club for the elderly and we’ve just started a social club for elderly and disabled as well.
“We are looking to have groups use the building throughout the day when the children aren’t using it.”
Mrs Yates said they were currently raising money to complete work on the garden.
She said: “Because the building took four years to be completed the gardens are in an awful state and we want to get the area for carparking done.
“Once we’ve got the gardens done hopefully we can start to let the building out for christenings, weddings and birthday parties.”
Mrs Yates of Forest Road, New Ollerton, was re-elected chairman; Mrs Sue Burton of Whitewater Road, New Ollerton, was re-elected secretary and Mrs Carole Barton of Thoresby Drive, Edwinstowe, was appointed treasurer.