A Shark Home
A permanent home for The Sharks in Hayes has taken a step closer as developers have submitted plans for the development of the area around Shackles Dock in Hayes. Savills are the developers and Rolfe Judd the architects.
Shackles Dock is a disused dock attached to the Grand Union Canal in Hayes, which is overgrown, silted up and not exactly a great spectacle.
The Sharks have been investigating the potential of this site for some time, it is in the middle of Hayes, has excellent communications links and with a large population able to walk to the Club it would make an ideal activity centre for us.
Whilst there is a lot of work to do and a long way to go, an initial artist impression of what Shackles Dock may look like is:
We will have storage room, changing rooms, meeting rooms, hopefully a gym. The current dock will be extended back to its original size, with accesses to the main canal, providing a sheltered area for teaching off of the main canal, but with the all important access to the main canal enabling us to have first class training facilities, easily accessible.
What has happened?
Planning permission has been applied for by the developers, full details are here. They include facilities for the Canoe Club adjacent to a coffee shop, which we would very much like to operate as part of the Cub facilities.
We still need to work out he details, but are confident that The Sharks will eventually have some of the best facilities of any Canoe Club in the Country. As well as being an excellent teaching and racing site, we hope to be able to have flat water slalom gates up, those of you who have been to the Kingsland Basin Slalom will realise what a great facility that would be.
What else is going on?
Quite a lot actually
As well as the Shackles Dock site, The Sharks are in detailed discussions with Barrett Homes, who are developing the Nestlés site further along the canal, we hope to establish a hub on this new development and are currently in talks about the gym facility, which would be a fantastic asset for The Club. We will keep you posted.
The Old Gas Works site in Southall, just along from Sac, is also being developed and we have had preliminary talks with the developers there and are hopeful we can have some facilities there to support our ambition and development plan.
We are interested in providing a number of hubs and sites in local communities to teach and host canoeing at; we already use Osterley Park, Harefield and Havelock, we have run sessions at Perivale (we will return) and Hanwell. With the plans that are going a head we will have a number options and bases, enabling us to reach more people in more places.
If you would like to know more about The Sharks, our plans and ambitions, or would like to be involved please contact Neal on 07951 770241 or email: neal@thesharks.org.uk.
A lot of work has gone into getting us this far and The Sharks would like to thank.
David Brough – The Hayes Town Partnership and the Hayes Canal Partnership
Another document you maybe interesting in taking a look at is our plan-for-hillingdon.