After the completion of a £50,000 renovation project, Stanley Community Football Centre will officially open this Saturday, the 21st May.

To mark the ribbon-cutting on the area’s newest sporting facility, the centre will host a family open day, featuring a Penalty Shoot Out competition, Football Tennis, a bouncy castle, inflatables, a tombola, a climbing wall, caricature pictures, plus refreshments.

The open day will be run by Stanley Events, who worked in partnership with the Foundation of Light, Durham County Council, Stanley Town Council, the Football Foundation and the Stanley Area Action Partnership to turn the site of the former North Durham Academy into a state-of-the-art community hub.

A spokesman said: “It has taken a tremendous amount of work by a dedicated team of volunteers, working with the County Council and partners to help bring a derelict site that was destined for demolition back into use for the local community.”

Mark Pae, of The Foundation of Light added: “This partnership has helped the Foundation establish a base for helping teenagers and young adults in the region through the Kicks social inclusion programme and Back on Track programme (which helps young people not in employment, education or training).

“The Foundation’s partnership with Stanley Events has proved successful and we are delighted with the development of the facility. Plans to enhance the facility further mean that it can become a place where people can realise their potential.”

The facility has over 600 regular users every week, who access a range of sport and fitness facilities. It is also the home of Beamish Community Football Club and Stanley Youth Club, who use the site’s extensive facilities, including its floodlit 3G astroturf pitches.

Its pitches are all available for hire, alongside a fully-furnished community room that is ideal venue for conferences, training, meetings, and birthday parties, including use of the kitchen area, changing and outdoor sports areas.

This Saturday’s open day starts at 10am, and runs until around 3pm, featuring fun for all the family.

The official ribbon-cutting will be at 12 noon.

With the Stanley Family Cycle day just a couple of weeks away, the introduction to cycling around the area has been given a boost.
The organisers and the Town Council have got together and made the event available to all by making the day a free event.
Council Chairman Joan Nicholson is looking forward to the day and hopes the people of the parish will get behind the project. “This ride is very much geared to the people in the Town and surrounding area.  The Council is putting on small events across the year that are looking to bring back even more of the community feel. This is just part of what we are doing for the Town and we hope people of all ages will get behind this and other events throughout the year.”
Centred on the town’s Oakey Park, the focus of the day will see a fabulous ride of around 6 miles showing off some great landscape and countryside on the way to Beamish. To make sure it isn’t too had on the legs, we will have a half way rest up where we can hone the bike skills with the Council’s Cycle Proficiency team.
Colin Wilkes, part of the organising team: “This is an ideal way to introduce the cycle ways around the Stanley area to a wider audience.  People still need to ‘sign up’ so we know how many to expect – although there will be a limited amount of on the day spaces available.  This is all due to the extra funding that we can offer a great day without charge.”
Along with the ride, there will be other stalls including bike protection marking by the local police, and also some advice on healthy lifestyle.
The event, on Sunday 1st May, will be an opportunity to see some of the best of the countryside around the Stanley area and will also publicise the planned opening of a new link route from the C2C route into Stanley town centre.
For more information, please see the facebook page: Stanley Family Cycle

Local hero, actor Alun Armstrong, who hails from Annfield Plain, battled extreme Canadian weather to make his way back to Stanley to turn on the Christmas Lights. Mr Armstrong had been filming in Canada but due to heavy snowfall his return to the UK was delayed by days as flight after flight was cancelled. He  even boarded a flight only to be turned back after an hour in the air. Many people would have cancelled, but Alun jumped on a train as soon as he arrived in London and just made it in time to be here for the switch on . We’re very grateful that Alun went to all this effort to support his home town.

For this year’s event, we had a ‘mini lumiere’, featuring the light clock that has been seen at the Gala in Durham, light installations in the planters and on street furniture and a mirror ball installation that when coupled with the music from the funfair made the front street feel like a huge outdoor disco. There was also an installation in the bus station for the night. We were also lucky enough to have carols on Front Street performed by our own Craghead Colliery Band.  There is nothing more festive than a brass band  on a cold night and Craghead did the town proud as always.

Hundreds of local residents came to enjoy the event, which brought a real buzz to the Front Street. There is a gallery of images HERE

Thanks to Lewis Christie for images. Check his page out here