A CRICKET club has revealed plans to overhaul its clubhouse and training facilities after being handed nearly £40,000.

Benfleet Cricket Club, in Manor Road, Benfleet, will use the £39,997 grant from the Veolia Environmental Trust to open out its ground floor bar area onto a patio facing the pitch.

It is hoped this will brighten up the clubhouse.

The club also wants to buy new practice nets and is aiming to attract new players for its five weekend teams, and six junior sides.

Club secretary Deryck Povey, 62, said he hopes work will start this month and be completed by April in time for the new season.

He said: “We are over the moon that we have been given the money, and the club is very grateful for the trust’s support.

“For a long time the downstairs of our clubhouse has been a bit dingy and needs opening out. That is the main part of the scheme really, to brighten it up and lead it out on to the pitch.

Mr Povey added: “Having the new nets will be very important to help our current players, and also to attract new ones too.

“Our aim is to get the work finished by April in time for the new season.

“Failing that, it could be done by the summer.”

For 15 years cash grants were given out by the Veolia North Thames Trust, which has committed £55million worth of funding to projects in south Essex.

The waste giant confirmed in the summer that the trust will no longer receive cash as part of the Government’s landfill tax credits scheme.

The money will now be centralised and handed out through the firm’s environmental trust.

It means local causes are now be in competition with projects across the country.

For more information on the trust, or to apply for funding, visit veoliatrust.org