A PROJECT to reunite Scout and Guide groups in Northallerton has finally come to fruition, resulting in a major new community facility.

After many years of fundraising, a lengthy search for an appropriate site and delays inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic, Northallerton Scout and Guide Group will formally opens its new headquarters on Saturday, September 4.

The opening honours will be performed by North Yorkshire Scouts’ County President Jo Ropner, who is also Lord Lieutenant for North Yorkshire, as well as Peter Stephenson, founder and executive chairman of key supporter Able UK.

Built on a site next to County Hall, opposite Northallerton railway station in Boroughbridge Road, the premises are providing a new home for several groups which had been scattered around various venues for several years. The smart new facility is also proving popular as a venue and meeting place for various community groups, businesses and other organisations.

Scouting and Guiding in Northallerton is more than a century old. For 50 years, children met at wooden wartime huts in the town’s Malpas Road. Since they were sold in 2015 to help fund the project for a new base the various sections, including Rainbows, Beavers, Brownies, Cubs, Guides, Scouts and Explorers, have had to meet at separate locations in the area.

Teesside company Able UK played an important role in raising funds for the project. Working with the LandTrust environmental organisation, it contributed more than £240,000 through the landfill tax credits scheme.

Group Scout Leader Duncan Wallace said: “We are extremely grateful to Able UK and LandTrust for this very generous funding – it helped us to complete the project and to include additional environmentally-friendly features such as air source heating.

“We always hoped this great new facility would benefit as many members of the community as possible – not just those in the Scouting and Guiding families – and that’s exactly what has happened since work was finished last summer.

“Although the pandemic has delayed some activities, including our formal opening, we are so pleased to now finally be able to show it off and welcome more people in, including everyone who has supported the project and given so generously over the years.”

After a low-key formal opening ceremony on Saturday morning, an open day will be held enabling everyone to take a look at the new facility, from 1pm to 5pm. Refreshments will be available and appropriate Covid-19 safety measures will be taken.

Visitors are asked to use the County Hall car park and make their way along the new path beside the playing field, not park on the site itself.

Groups and individuals interested in hiring the new facility can check availability and find out more via www.scoutsandguides.co.uk.