Community Centres Boost: ‘We’ve had to knock on a lot of doors for funding and finally one opened’

Slane Community Centre has been awarded €213,000 in funding from The Community Centre Investment Fund to complete the second phase of building for the highly anticipated local amenity.

Work started on the centre last year, following lengthy delays in the project due to Covid-19 restrictions.

The project started six years ago by a voluntary group in the village will see a brand new facility next to St Patrick’s NS open to the community and will give opportunities to 30 voluntary groups in Slane.

It is expected to cost in the region of €1million and intensive fundraising has taken place over the past few years.

Maeve Carbin, chairperson of Slane Community Centre committee who has been a driving force behind the project says she is "thrilled" with the news. She added:

"We had been banging on a lot of different doors for funding and finally one opened.

"This will allow us to complete the internal works and we now have the money in place to complete the building.

"We estimated the internal works would cost €300,000, this funding will cover a huge chunk of that but there is always a shortfall so we are still fundraising.

"I'm hoping all going well that we could be opened by the end of next summer!"

The committee had been met with a number of challenges in their plight to bring the centre to fruition.

Last September Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, unveiled the foundation stone for the new Community Centre, but work had to cease because of Covid-19 restrictions.

Further delays followed with the war in Ukraine resulting in a global shortage of materials.

The committee had also applied for various grants over the last few years but had been unsuccessful until now. Maeve commented that all involved were heartened by the development. She added:

"It's a real boost to the committee. When you are getting to the final stages sometimes you just need an injection of energy to keep going and that's what this is. We are getting there, the finish line is in sight.

"It is going to breathe new life into the village and give a home to all of these fantastic organisations.

"We are very grateful to Minister McEntee for all her help with this grant and also to our local Councillor Wayne Harding who is constantly pushing for funding for this project.

"The community centre is going to be the best thing to happen to Slane in a very long time."

Maeve says she wants to see the community centre "buzzing" with all sorts of activities. She added:

"We are right beside the school so I'm really looking forward to seeing the school getting full use of it to have their indoor PE facilities that they really need.

"I'd like to see all of the local sports organisations using the sports hall. I'd like to see the active retirement group getting full use of it. The youth club have their cafe but this is an extra facility to run their events in.

"I'd love to see basketball, dance classes and fitness classes in the centre. There's loads of talent and there is a real need in Slane for these activities. People are travelling to Drogheda and Navan to avail of them, when we get this up and running, nobody will have to leave Slane for any of those things.

"But not only that, we'd love to see people coming from Drogheda and Navan to Slane to use our facilities.

"We want to see a community centre that is used by everyone in the community.

"People have been talking about getting a community centre in Slane since the 1960s and some of the people in the village would remember that and one or two of them have come with us on this journey and joined the committee and are helping us but no one has ever got it this far.

"It was getting the right people together at the right time, it has been a really hard-working committee who has never given up and never lost vision. This is one of the good days, there has been a lot of hard work and disappointment a long the way but when you get a day like today you know it has all been worth it."

Local Cllr Wayne Harding welcomed the news. He said:

"It is great news this morning for Slane Community Centre as they have received €213,000 in funding. This will enable a fantastic hard working committee led by Chairperson Maeve Carbin to complete a project that will have an enormous positive impact on the community.

"All projects of this scale are a huge undertaking and it really was pushing a massive boulder up a hill. There has been very big fundraising drives which the community really got behind. But covid shut down the whole building industry and there was supply issues around the steel for the roof.

"But local contractors the McMenamins have been excellent in and the expertise within the committee have been utilised to great effect in every aspect of the project.

"Maeve herself is a solicitor and other members have backgrounds in finance, building project management, and funding drawdown. As a member of the committee, I was happy to assist in the planning aspect and funding from the community department of Meath County Council. "