Parlington Angling Club lands third grant from Hook Moor Wind Farm Community Fund

A West Yorkshire community angling club has reeled in a third grant from a renewable energy firm to help it further improve the facilities it can offer to local people.

Parlington Angling Club has used an £850 grant from OnPath Energy’s Hook Moor Wind Farm Community Fund to resurface 14 timber fishing platforms that sit around the larger of the two ponds that it uses on the Parlington Estate near Aberford, to the east of Leeds.

The platforms have been in place for around 20 years, with the surfaces gradually decaying enough to now allow fishing equipment to slip through into the water, as well as being extremely slippy in wet weather.

The Club has used its latest grant to buy sheets of composite decking, which were installed on the platforms by a team of club volunteers to provide a stable, flat surface that’s safe for everyone to use.

Founded in 1995, Parlington Angling Club has around 60 members who are all based within a five-mile radius of its two ponds, with different generations of the same family regularly fishing together.

The contributions we’ve had from the Hook Moor Fund have made a terrific difference to the facilities we can offer our members.

Maintenance is carried out by club members on a regular basis to ensure the local environment remains in the best possible condition.

The club used a £1,500 grant from the Hook Moor Wind Farm Community Fund in 2022 to make repairs to the fabric of the smaller pond, as well as to restock its two ponds with around 200 new fish.

A further £2,100 grant awarded last year enabled the club to build a series of seven wooden platforms around the smaller of its two ponds which are big enough to accommodate anglers, their equipment and a young family member, and which also make it easier for some of the club’s older members to access the waterside.

Alongside this, a new stone pathway was laid down to make it easier for anglers to make their way around the pond when the ground is wet and muddy.

Terry Beaumont, treasurer and membership secretary at Parlington Angling Club, says: “The timber platforms have had a lot of use over the years and it’s only natural that they’d start to wear out, but it had reached the point where they were starting to get dangerous, especially with all the wet weather that we had earlier this year.

“Adding composite decking has created much more stable and even surfaces that are safer for everyone to use, especially our older members and those with more limited mobility.

“The contributions we’ve had from the Hook Moor Fund have made a terrific difference to the facilities we can offer our members and we’re really thankful for OnPath Energy’s continuing support.”

OnPath Energy (formerly Banks Renewables) owns and operates the Hook Moor Wind Farm, which sits close to the A1/M1 junction and which generated enough renewable energy in the company’s last financial year to meet the annual energy requirements of around 8,500 homes.

It is also behind the planned Barnsdale Energy Park, a consented solar energy scheme between Kippax and Allerton Bywater to which it is currently looking to add a containerised battery energy storage system which could store up to 40MW of electricity, which is enough to power around 48,000 homes for two hours during peak times.

Robin Winstanley, sustainability and community director at OnPath Energy, adds: “The Hook Moor Wind Farm Community Fund was designed to improve the facilities and opportunities available to local people over the long term, and it’s great to see the many different ways it has done so around the area.

“Parlington Angling Club provides a great opportunity for different generations to spend quality time together in a wonderful location, and we’re very glad to hear of the difference that our grants have made to the facilities they can offer.”

Environmental and community projects in the vicinity of the Hook Moor Wind Farm which are interested in applying to its community fund should first contact the fund manager via apply@onpathcommunityfund.co.uk or on 0191 378 6342 to confirm that their group or project is eligible.