A sailing club in North Nottinghamshire has spoken of its relief after receiving a grant from Severn Trent’s Community Fund to help protect its equipment.

Volunteer-run Daneshill Sailing Club, which operates on Daneshill Lakes near Retford, stores its equipment in three shipping containers by the lake, but over the years, two containers have fallen into disrepair.  

And after several break-ins during the club’s 30-year existence, volunteers were concerned that one more would signal the end for the club that has over 60 members. 

They applied for a Severn Trent Community Fund grant for two new shipping containers to store their equipment and secure the club’s immediate future; and volunteer Bruce Barnett spoke of his joy when it was confirmed they had secured the £7,000 grant. 

Bruce, from Retford, said: “We’re extremely grateful. It will keep us going. If we couldn’t keep the boats and equipment secure, we couldn’t use them and we would have to stop operating and doing what we do in the local community. We’re one of the friendliest sailing clubs around and it would have been a massive loss. 

“We’re very active in the local community and we like to encourage people to take up sailing, including children. We have an open day every year and we had 170 members of the public out on the water last time round.  

“We work with local schools as well, and after their year six pupils have taken their SATS exams we get them to come and enjoy a day of supervised sailing at the lake. We’ve been doing this for a number of years, with up to five schools visiting each year.”

Bruce explained the importance of being able to store the equipment in a ‘secure’ place. 

He said: “We keep all of our equipment in three shipping containers but two are in a very bad state. We can’t close the doors properly on one container, and on the other there’s holes in the floor and on the roof. We’ve been worried about this for a long time as we’ve had break-ins before, and we feared that if it happened again the club may cease to exist. 

“We’re all volunteers and we love to encourage people to come out and get active. Lots of people come to Daneshill just for a walk, but if anyone shows an interest we’re always keen to encourage them to get out on the water because we enjoy it that much.” 

Severn Trent’s Community Fund was created for community groups and projects that aim to improve community wellbeing. 

Sue Heyes, Severn Trent Community Fund Officer, said: “We were delighted to be able to award this grant to Daneshill Sailing Club. The importance of the work they do locally, especially with schools, can’t be understated so we’re happy this will provide some security for the club to operate for many years to come.” 

To find out more about the fund, and what projects have been awarded, please visit stwater.co.uk/communityfund.