CCDP. A personal introduction from the lead CCDP Officer.
Quite simply, the CCDP programme is the best news that Canoe Clubs have had in years. It enables you to invest in your own club’s long term future, to do what your club does best. Introduce and facilitate more people to go paddling.
The details and case studies that follow are to help you formulate your club’s future strategy. If you are not interested then fine. Stop here. But if you have an eye for the future then carry on. Between us we can deliver.
Your club will need four absolutely essential things, a viable project, a willingness to persevere whatever the set backs, money in the bank with the willingness to raise more, and a willingness to achieve top club. Open minds help !!
Your project, can be as large or as small as you like but it must stack up with enough users and potential users and no gold taps.
Your club must be prepared to have a small group to push the project through. Probably a sub committee with a leader who will see things through come what may.
Your club must have money in the bank to start with. For a replacement club house on a river bank location, planning and all your consents will cost around £20,000 and could take up to 2 years.
Your club will need to raise between 50% and 66% of total project costs.
Not put off I hope. Then this is how you do it.
1. You will need to be accepted by the BCU CCDP Panel into the BCU portfolio. A form is available for downloading. It is designed to get you thinking as much as us wanting the answers. Upon receipt and depending upon where we are in the CCDP cycle will depend upon how quickly we will call you to arrange an initial appraisal visit to your current facilities if any.
2. Upon panel acceptance you will get a letter together with another (Simple) application form to enable you to get Stage 1 SE acceptance. This in effect says, we like your scheme and have an amount of money earmarked for you. All things being equal if you fulfil the Stage 2 criteria you will get an award of grant.
In order to work up your scheme you will be offered the support of the BCU’s architectural and engineering consultants (for a fee) and an offer of help with fund raising by another consultant (also for a fee) you will be offered the services of a PDO, given an SE case officer and an open line to me all for free.
3. When you have all your ducks in a row, you will make on behalf of your club a formal Stage 2 application for grant. You will then be offered an “Award of grant letter” which will have conditions attached.
You can then go ahead and build you project. Just a further warning.
Throughout, right from first application you will be expected to keep details of your participation figures and be prepared and able to pass these figures on to both the BCU and SE. This monitoring of participation is mandatory.
These are the basic rules of the game.
Good luck,
Chris. Hawkesworth.
Access and Facilities Manager BCU.