STAFF at a crisis hit activity centre are celebrating a cash boost after being awarded a slice of a new national funding pot.

Longridge Activity Centre in Marlow has been awarded £2000 of National Lottery funding from Sport England’s Flood Relief Fund to repair buildings and pathways throughout the entire centre which were badly damaged in the floods and storms over the last few months.

The recent storms and floods devastated homes, businesses and infrastructure across the country and also had major impact on sports facilities, particularly sports pitches and water sports centres..

Jennie Price, Chief Executive of Sport England, said: “The storms and floods devastated many sports facilities across England. We want to play our part in helping communities get back to normal, and we are delighted to be able to get this emergency funding to Longridge to help it get back up and running as soon as possible."

In February, Sport England launched the £5 million Flood Relief Fund in a bid to help clean up and repair sports pitches and facilities and get them back up and running.

Longridge will use its £2000 award to purchase tools and materials to enable us to embark on restoring the site to its former glory as quickly as possible.

With the offer of help from local tradespeople receiving these funds will mean we can now progress with our recovery works.

Longridge's Amanda Foister, who also represents the Adventure Learning Foundation said: “We are delighted that Sport England has awarded this funding to us which will allow us to repair our buildings and re-open our activity centre at the start of April, so that the community can once more benefit from these fantastic facilities."