Rugby club rebuild due to kick off

Work to rebuild an arson-hit rugby clubhouse in Walsall will start in the coming weeks, nearly three years after fire ravaged the building.

Aldridge Rugby Club was destroyed in the blaze in 2009, and plans for a new £350,000 building and changing rooms were approved by planners last year.

The club will be accepting a £50,000 grant from Sport England today, and has also landed £70,000 of funding from the rugby union.

This means work will soon begin at the Bourne Vale site.

Players have been unable to use their own ground for games for three seasons.

Chairman of the club Alex Reed said it had been a "frantic" few weeks but that he was delighted the club was able to be moving forward.

He said: "We have everything pretty much in place to be able to start work and make some real progress. Hopefully we will have a new clubhouse before the start of the season."

The 22-week programme of works will result in a clubhouse with changing rooms, a meeting room, dining space, showers, toilets and a bar.

Mr Reed added: "It will be much better than the old clubhouse and more modern. It will be more accessible to a greater range of people with disabled access, which the old building never had.

"We will have individual changing rooms so we will be able to have mixed gender use."

Players have had to play at other grounds for the last two seasons after fire ripped through changing rooms and the bar area and destroyed kit and equipment worth more than £5,000 in July 2009.