Soon, a brand new rugby club in Cardiff will be opened to the public. The project is funded by Bristol City Council and is the first of its kind to be built in the area for quite some time. But why is the club so unique?
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00:00 For me rugby is like one part but being part of the club is the main bit for me.
00:04 I've been involved with it since I was nine years old so it's a big part of me and a part
00:08 of the person I am today because of the club.
00:10 So yeah, it's got a big special place in my heart anyway, especially.
00:15 Soon a brand new rugby football club will be open to the public.
00:20 The project is funded by Bristol's City Council and is the first of its kind to be built in
00:26 the area of Hartcliffe for quite some time.
00:29 So why is this club going to be so unique?
00:32 We're in Hartcliffe on Fulford Road and we're on the site of what will be the new St Bernadette's
00:39 Rugby Club, a new community facility for the people of South Bristol.
00:44 It was formerly the Whitehouse Centre Primary School.
00:48 The scheme's been probably on the books now for Bristol City Council for probably about
00:52 ten years or more.
00:54 It's gone through various different changes, scoping changes.
01:00 We've been involved with this project for quite some time, many years in fact, and it's
01:03 taken a very long time to get the project to this stage, which is why there's such a
01:08 sense of celebration and excitement about this project actually coming out of the ground.
01:13 Thankfully you can see some of the building behind us as well which is just brilliant.
01:16 It's been a scheme which has been over budget for a long, long period of time.
01:21 A lot of people have had a look at it, so haven't been able to get to the budget.
01:25 We came in back in the beginning part of last year to help BCC get to a solution which will
01:33 enable them to build and we actually had the final order for that back at the beginning
01:37 of this year.
01:38 Quite a lot of excitement because I think Hartcliffe is not an area that historically
01:42 had enough investment in it and maybe some people here feel like they might have been
01:47 a bit forgotten and having a great new rugby club here, it just gives the children something
01:53 else to do.
01:54 The employer local, some of the contractors, a huge part of our supply chain is inside
02:01 Bristol, but not even just inside Bristol, inside the most needy areas inside of Bristol.
02:10 So we've been the architects, we've been designing this project for the last number of years.
02:14 It's been through many iterations, many versions and finally we're going to be able to deliver
02:19 a building that the club can actually benefit from, the community can benefit from and it's
02:26 got a real sense of achievement, this project, that we're managing to deliver such an important
02:31 facility for the community.
02:33 I took on a role last year of head of social media and head of advertisement and since
02:38 then just got stuck in with the club and how it's developing and how we can get the message
02:44 across to our new home is coming to Fulford and how we can get everyone on board with
02:47 that really.
02:48 In terms of cost of living, the rugby club itself, it can give people in the area purpose
02:57 and it can facilitate a community sort of environment where everyone looks out for each
03:02 other and everyone becomes a team.