The run-down YMCA, the hub of local basketball in the 1970s and 1980s, is to be demolished – except for one building.
The demolition is to make way for a multimillion-dollar complex expected to rejuvenate the 134-year-old organisation which has been central to a number of social and sports programmme in The City.
Calling the project ambitious, general secretary David Norgrove said the “Y” is going to need significant funding in order to build the complex that will include a 25-metre hi-tech pool, gym, multi-sport arena, offices, auditorium, pavilion and a café. The only building to remain untouched during the construction houses the daycare and was erected in 1991.
There have been several attempts in the past to restore the ‘Y’ in Pinfold Street, which has declined into a state of broken windows, falling ceilings, broken bleachers, a rusting and at times exposed steel structure, all leading to uninhabitable structures.
But the charity is about to embark on a major drive to solicit cash or kind for the project in order to bring back glory to the location and once again be an attraction for young people, wayward or otherwise.
