FIRST LONGRIDGE CHARITY DINNER RAISES ALMOST £10,000

The first charity dinner in aid of Longridge Activity Centre took place on Friday night at the Macdonald Compleat Angler, raising almost £10,000.

The sell-out event saw more than 120 people enjoy drinks on the lawn overlooking the river before heading in for a three-course dinner with singing and comedy provided by local entertainer Karen Dalton.

Organised by a team of volunteers who live and work locally to Longridge, the evening saw the launch of the campaign to future-proof the centre against further inevitable flooding.

With more than 90,000 young people coming through the centre since the start of the year to experience outdoor activities both on and off the river, the CEO, Amanda Foister, is determined that there won’t be a repeat experience of the clean-up operation that was necessary at the start of the year.

She said: 'The response by both local businesses and the general public when the floods hit was overwhelming, and very humbling, but we cannot expect the community to rally around us every year when we flood. And we will flood again. We need to come up with a solution to prevent the same scenario continuously arising each winter.'

Working in partnership with Berkeley Homes, the centre unveiled plans to achieve just that, to replace the existing infrastructure and fabric of the 60-year-old site, without the need for an extensive rebuild. Using innovative construction technology to safeguard against the ravages of excessive water from flooding, the centre needs to raise £150,000 to guarantee its future.

With the raffle from this dinner raising £2,000 and the silent auction raising just over £3,000, the centre is well on its way to achieving this figure.

'When the flooding hit back in January, we needed to raise £100,000 just to get ourselves back on our feet,' said Amanda. 'This in unsustainable going forward but we are confident we will quickly raise the £150,000 we need to ensure we never experience a repeat of January.

'I’d like to thank the volunteer organising committee of Simon Branney, Heidi Nugent, Lizzie Hampson, Rosalind Sack and Sue Berry for all their hard work in making the dinner such a success. Without them, and the initial idea from Simon who works at a local PR company, we would not be on the way to safeguarding the future of Longridge.'