Runways End Outdoor Centre

Work starts on £6.1 million children’s and young people’s activity centre

Work begins on Runways End on 18 October. The Centre will enable children across Hampshire to take part in world class, challenging and exciting indoor and outdoor activities.

The Centre will include

• a modern accessible climbing and abseiling tower
• new high and low ropes course
• new caving system
• new indoor multi-activity hall for archery, shooting, climbing and bouldering
• canoeing and rafting and a new canoe store with amenities
• bespoke accommodation for up to 50 people
• amenities block for a large camping zone
• campfire amphitheatre
• various meeting, activity and training rooms

Runways End built amongst nine acres of woodland, between Farnborough and Aldershot and adjacent to the Basingstoke Canal. The area is already well used by the Scouts but after the completion, school groups will be able to maximise the use of it during the day.

Runways End will be an eco friendly site producing its own hot water and heating through a biomass boiler and a rain harvesting system that will provide water to toilet facilities that will overall reduce utility bills. It is due to be completed in September 2011.

Project Partners

Hampshire County Council, Rushmoor Borough Council and the Blackwater Valley District Scout Association were successful in securing a £6.1m grant from the Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) Co-location Fund to pay for the project.

The contractors are Morgan Sindall from Fareham.