Hawick Rugby Club drawing up plans for new stand, starting with £35k study

The Greens’ current stand at their Mansfield Park ground is now over 60 years old, forcing officials at the club to think about replacing it and they’ve now given the green light for a £35,000 feasibility study paving the way for such a move.

The bill for that study is being picked up by green energy firm Community Windpower.

If plans to replace the current stand, built in 1956, are deemed to be viable following that study, the so-called Green Sky project would aim to celebrate the 135-year-old club’s past, as well as helping safeguard its future, by including space for a museum to display memorabilia amassed by late Hawick rugby commentator Bill McLaren.

Club president Neil Hamilton said: “This club is at the heart of the community, and we’re delighted this feasibility study, under the Green Sky project, can take place to ensure we can support even more people and events within the area.

“The study will provide us with the platform to understand exactly what we need, how we can go about it, what it could look like and also how much it could cost.

“However, without the funding from Community Windpower, this study would not have been able to take place, and the club is very grateful for this invaluable support.

“A key part of the study is to guarantee we engage with everyone in the community to ensure the new stand will cater for a wide range of needs.

“This will include increasing our support for disabled, children’s and women’s rugby while also expanding the audience through new versions of the game, such as Teri touch rugby, which can include children and grandparents playing in the same team.

“This is a fantastic opportunity and one the community should grasp as we want the Green Sky project to be innovative in how we approach the new stand.

“Among the facilities in the new stand would be space for the Bill McLaren Foundation’s museum, new changing facilities and space for community events including weddings, birthdays and wakes.”

The feasibility study is expected to take until March next year to complete, and if its findings are positive, the club would then proceed to launch a fundraising drive to generate the money needed.

Hamilton added: “As a club, we have produced 65 caps for the men’s and women’s international teams, including three in the current men’s squad and two in the women’s, and we believe that these new plans will helps us achieve our aim of providing a further 65 capped players in the future.”

That tally of caps is set to be increased by two tonight, October 23, as former Hawick players Darcy Graham and Rory Sutherland have been named in the team to face Georgia in a friendly match at Murrayfield in Edinburgh, though usual national captain Stuart Hogg, another former Green, is elsewhere on duty for his club, Exeter Chiefs.

Rod Wood, managing director of Community Windpower, headquartered in Cheshire but with a Scottish office at Motherwell in North Lanarkshire, said: “We’re delighted to be able to provide support to the world-famous Hawick Rugby Club as it looks to create exciting plans for the future.

“The club is at the centre of the community, just as our operational wind farms are, playing a vital role in encouraging sport, exercise and togetherness among a cross-section of the community.

“We hope this is just the start of our support for the club and people of Hawick, and we’re looking forward to seeing the results of the study.”

His company doesn’t currently operate any wind farms in the Borders, though it is hoping to build one 11 miles south-west of Hawick.

It put in an application to the Scottish Government’s energy consents unit in May last year for planning consent for its Faw Side wind farm and is currently awaiting a decision.

If approved that wind farm would consist of up to 45 turbines, four fewer than first proposed, with a total generating capacity of 315mw.

Five of those turbines would be just short of 180m tall to tip and the other 40 would be 200m tall.

If given the thumbs-up by Holyrood ministers, the wind farm would come with a community benefit fund worth £350,00 a year and £14m over the course of its lifespan, so rugby club bosses would hope to land a share of those prospective handouts to help bankroll its planned stand in that case.

They’ll also have to draw up a plan B for securing funding, however, if Community Windpower’s plans are rejected.