The dream of securing cash to build a much-needed £2 million resource centre for Monifieth is back on track.
A bid for a Big Lottery grant was rejected by charity chiefs, forcing Monifieth Community Resource Group (MCRG) to come up with alternative ways to finance the project.
However, the group are “over the moon” after the Big Lottery’s Investing in Ideas agreed to award £10,000 for an updated feasibility study.
The chairwoman of a steering group set up to drive the project forward told The Courier: “We’re out of the nightmare and back into the dream.”
It is a fantastic boost for residents who are more committed than ever to bringing the new complex to the west end of the town near the Blue Seaway playpark.
Chairwoman Jean Lee said the outcome was “utterly” fabulous given £10,000 is the maximum a project can be awarded from these funds.
She said: “It shows they have belief in us and all the work we’ve put in since last July.
“Over the last year we’ve done a lot of researching and talking to groups and we found the demand and need for sports facilities in the area is massive.
“Our bid for this funding was based on the need to get hard data on exactly which sports and wellbeing groups would use our new centre and what they would want us to provide.
“Monifieth has a crying need for a facility will provide general community resources and has been proved beyond doubt but we need to firm up the proof of the demand.
“That’s what our new feasibility study will undertake to do.
“Once this study is completed and we’ve moved toward a firmer idea of the kind of building we want, we’ll then be in a position to bid for the really big money.
“We’re out of the nightmare and back into the dream.”
Angus Council, which has committed £300,000 to the project, has extended the group’s temporary home in a community cabin near the railway station until next year.