THE Holsworthy Area Sports Pavilion (HASP) committee is urging everyone to vote for them in their bid to get through to the finals of the Aviva Community Fund project.

The construction of the new pavilion in the town at Stanhope Park is already underway but they still need close to £15,000 to complete the £400,000 project.

The Aviva Community Fund is split into four sections with HASP applying for the £5,000-£10,000 grant under the ‘Health and Wellbeing’ category.

The public voting opened on October 24 and closes at midday on Tuesday, November 21.

Everyone gets ten votes, which can either be given to one project or can be spread out among a few.

There are over 500 projects across the country in HASP’s category with the top 15 going through to the finals.

Once through to the finals, the judges will choose five to receive funding on Tuesday, January 16.

The judges will look at the following criteria: impact (40%); longevity and sustainability (35%); likelihood of success (10%); submission (10%); originality (5%).

HASP committee member, Lyndon Piper, said: “We’re about £15,000 short to finish it in one go. We still have a slight shortfall in capital funding and also we need money towards fitting out the building such as kitchen appliances, cutlery, furniture and storage space.

“However, we’ve already got over £2,000 votes and we’ve had a brilliant response so far. The last time we looked we were 7th in the country in our category so we’re definitely in the mix. It ends on November 21, but we’re working hard on social media and asking everyone and anyone they know to vote. But we know that not everyone is on social media so we need to make people aware.”

Lyndon then went on to talk to about what impact the money and the completion of the project will have for the town.

He said: “At the moment we have Holsworthy Youth Football Club and Holsworthy Cricket Club who are the tenants of the pavilion under the town council who are the landlords.

“Once the pavilion is completed we’ll look to bring in other sports and well-being groups to use the site.

“People will benefit from the pavilion from all around Holsworthy and the surrounding area.

“It’ll be a venue where people can socialise and be a community hub for the town so I urge everyone to log on and vote.”

To find out more about the project, search ‘Holsworthy Area Sports Pavilion’ on Facebook and to help their quest with the Aviva Community Fund, visit https://community-fund.aviva.co.uk/