A £750,000 fundraising campaign has been launched because a thriving village community centre near York is ‘Out o’ Space.’

Trustees of The Poppleton Centre, which serves Upper and Nether Poppleton on the outskirts of York, have been planning for over a year to create much needed additional space.

The 1-2 storey side extension increases the venue by almost a third from 971m2 to 1248.8m2. Car parking increases from 55 to 63 spaces and cycling from 10 to 42 spaces.

The centre, built in the 1990s, offers facilities including an internal sports hall, function rooms, kitchen, changing and showering rooms and a lounge and bar.

Since its completion, a conservatory facing the tennis courts has been added to provide a home to the resident tennis club and extra seating for the lounge. But it still isn’t enough.

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Trust Chairman Robin Tomlinson said: “We’re full to capacity and we need to build additional rooms to cope with the demand from local community groups in the area.

“On top of that, the addition of 400 new homes being built by Miller Homes on the outskirts of the village will significantly increase demand - not only for room hire but for service in our cafe/bar, The Poppleton Social.”

City of York Council this week gave planning consent for the new build, which adds two new first floor rooms, a foyer, stairs and lift and considerable expansion of the cafe/bar.

Furthermore, plans include space for Explore library, at a later date, to move into the community centre from their existing site in the village.

The Trust planks to approach the project in three phases as it progresses towards getting the funds together to start work. The target for the first two is £460,000.

The new annexe will have The Poppleton Centre name displayed big and bold on the side of the building.

Each letter will be made up of the names of all those who have asked to have their name on the building to show their support. For just £25 each the donors name, those of their family and friends can be included for display on the building for all time.

Centre manager Beth Kirkham said: “The Trust has already committed £100,000 to the project and we hope to achieve our goal through grant aid, fundraising events, through the generosity of the local business community and crowdfunding.

And so the Out o’ Space Project is born.

Robin Tomlinson added: “We’re out of space, so it seemed a fitting title.”.

The foyer display is about to go up and the Spaceometer that will record how fundraising is progressing will be centre stage.

Anyone interested in supporting the Out o’ Space project should contact Beth Kirkham by email at info@poppletoncentre.org.uk 

Further details can be found at poppletoncentre.org.uk