Icing on the cake for new cubs' HQ

The offer of £5,000 of work would make a difference to any club or community group.

No matter how big or small, no organisation would turn their nose up at the chance to have a team of professionals come along and give their team pavilion a revamp, their hall a fresh lick of paint or a new kitchen for their headquarters.

So when construction firm Leadbitter said it would carry out £5,000, £2,000 and £1,000 of work for three organisations in the Bristol area to improve their facilities, we were swamped with entries.

Ten finalists were chosen, and over the past six weeks they have been collecting tokens in the Evening Post to try to win the work.

Between them they sent us more than 1.7 million points – the equivalent of about 17,000 tokens – a mammoth total that reflects the huge efforts by the entrants.

After days of counting there was one clear winner. With 638,000 points, more than double the nearest entrant, the 37th Kingswood Scouts are this years Building Healthy Communities competition winner.

Taking first prize means the scouts, cubs and beavers now have £5,000 of work, which will be used to resurface a shale and gravel car park outside their hut to turn it into a play area.

Second place went to Shirehampton Colts Football Club, and in third place is the 1st Muslim Scout Group, from Horfield.

Leaders at the 37th Kingswood Scouts say the win will be the icing on the cake for their £115,000 new headquarters, which is due to be completed by September. The group has 180 members, from five to 25 years old, and includes beavers, cubs, scouts and explorer scouts.

They meet every week at Deers Lodge, off Deerhurst, and are delighted to have won the competition.

Group chairman Nick Box, 51, said: "Winning the competition really is the icing on the cake. The youngsters will be able to play outside safely, which is the most important thing.

"Most of our activities are outdoors, pioneering, cooking over logs, and we do quite a bit of what I would call traditional scouting activities."

Shaun Fudge has been with scouts for 15 years, and started out in the same group as an eight-year-old Cub.

Now an assistant group leader, the 38-year-old said technology played a big part in the group winning the competition, with the scouts gaining a great deal of support online.

He said: "We've got our own Facebook group, and we also sent out e-mails asking for support from friends, family and colleagues."

In response hundreds of people went out and bought copies of the Evening Post to collect the tokens that helped win the competition. They believe one generous donor showed his support by buying 500 copies of the Evening Post in Staple Hill.

The Scouts also received a great deal of support from parishioners at the near by St Stephens Church.

The boys themselves were all pleased to have won the competition and can't wait to try the new play area out when it is installed.

Mr Fudge said: "We are truly delighted to win first place.

"Everyone has worked so hard, and it will make such a difference for our members to do activities outside in the fresh air. The car park at the moment is not the sort of thing you want to run around on and if the youngsters were to fall over they would end up with knees and elbows full of gravel.

"Having it resurfaced so there is a bigger area to play on and it is safer for games will make a world of difference to us, and we are extremely grateful to Leadbitter for this opportunity."

Leadbitter is planning on carrying out the work on a day at the end of August.

Regional director Rob Bradley said: "It's fantastic to see the 37th Kingswood Scout Group as the winners of this competition.

"By asphalting this gravelled area we're going to be able to improve the quality of sporting and fun events the beavers, cubs and scouts will be able to participate in.

"It will be the final piece in the jigsaw of a redeveloped site for the group, adding to the new building that will be completed in September."

Evening Post deputy editor Rob Stokes said: "We have been staggered by the response to this competition.

"Every one of the finalists put in a mammoth effort but we cannot do anything but applaud the efforts of the 37th Kingswood Scouts. They obviously ran a military-style campaign to amass such a huge total.

"Shirehampton Colts and the 1st Muslim Scouts also did fantastically well and all three groups can look forward to enjoying considerably better facilities thanks to Leadbitter."