Friday Night Club aspires to build activity centre in Fareham

The Friday Night Club - a project that provides a multitude of activities for adults with learning disabilities - was handed the generous donation by The Fareham Pub at a ceremony last Friday.

Martin Munns and Dianne Munns, landlord and landlady of the pub handed over the cheque during the project’s monthly Friday night disco at Wallington Village Hall.

The project’s co-founder Geoff Knipe was delighted to receive the donation.

He said: ‘It was wonderful to know that we have the support of a local pub and to receive this generous donation.

Geoff, and his group of 12 volunteers are now hoping to use the money to help fund a new activity centre for the group.

‘When we started six years ago, we were just a Friday night disco, we have evolved a lot since then and now we put on a range of activities.

‘These include activities such as archery and quad-biking and now we feel we need to get our own space to move forward.’

Most of the project’s outdoor activities take place at Marwell Outdoor Activity Centre in Owslebury, Winchester.

The group make use of the dirt track there to carry out the quad-biking and Geoff says they would look to build one around the new activity centre.

He added: ‘We are trying to find a patch of land where we would then look to build our own centre.

‘We need about an acre and a half to two acres to fit what we need.

‘We know a lot of local builders that would help put the building for us and we’ve raised about £13,000 for the project so now it’s all about cracking on and finding a site.’

The group now look after around 90 individuals and say the facility would be used by other community groups who would be interested in the space.

Geoff added: ‘Ultimately, we need people’s support in order to make it all happen.

Maryam Brady, Fareham borough councillor for Fareham East said: ‘I think what Geoff and the project does is absolutely fantastic.

‘What he’s doing is a case of occupational therapy that really seems to work, you can see from the looks on people’s faces that they are loving it.

‘It would be great for them to have their own space and I will support them in lobbying the council to help find them the space that they need for this activity centre.’