8:50am Friday 4th January 2008
By Will Mcmanus
OVERTON Rugby Club is aiming to set an environmentally friendly example to all sports clubs by building the UK's first low-carbon clubhouse.
For the last 10 years the club has used the former cricket pavilion at Laverstoke Park as its base and has two temporary buildings as changing rooms.
But that could all change with plans to replace them with a stunning modern building incorporating the latest in green design.
Plans for the two-storey clubhouse feature a solar energy collector to provide hot water, heat recovery ventilators and even a green roof' that is covered in sedum - a succulent plant that improves insulation and drainage.
Club chairman Roger Filbey said: "At the moment we have a thatched building which in itself is unique, so we are going from one unique home to another.
"Obviously we're very pleased with the plans and it will be exciting to be involved in creating what we think will be the UK's first green clubhouse."
He said that so far the club is on schedule to start construction in May after raising the predicted £400,000 building costs. Work on the redevelopment only started in January 2007 after a plan to create a new sport facility with the Overton Recreation Centre was abandoned due to funding issues.
Jody Scheckter, the owner of Laverstoke Park and the land where the club is based, has pledged his full support for the development's green aspects as they fit well with his own environmentally-friendly ethos.
Mr Filbey added: "Organisations like ORFC do not have a lot of money so we are looking for grants and up to now we have been fully backed by the council, which does help. We've come a very long way in just a year.
"The funding issue is always the difficult one, but the indications are that we will be able to afford it.
"The only possible problem we may have is that we are a single-sport and it seems that the Government prefers multi-sport developments but we think the idea sells itself."
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