BUCKLEY’s mayor has split a year’s worth of fundraising between three local sports clubs to help them survive the coronavirus pandemic.

Cllr Arnold Woolley has held the title of town mayor since 2019 and has been raising funds since then to go towards a local cause at the end of mayoral stint.

In 12 months, the councillor has raised just under £7,000 through various functions.

The money has now been divided equally and paid over to the Buckley Boxing Club, The Buckley Cricket Club and the Buckley Football Club.

Cllr Woolley said: “The original aim was for those clubs to use the money to help fund activities of their junior sections and work to help children from deprived families engage in those sports. However, with COVID-19, the money will now probably go towards simply helping the three clubs stay alive in these difficult times.”

The Buckley mayor also expressed his sincere thanks to those that helped reach the incredible fundraising milestone with their donations.

Emma Iball, Buckley Town Football Club’s secretary, told the Leader exactly what the donation by Cllr Woolley meant to the club during the current difficult times.

She said: “We were entirely grateful for the donation we received from Arnold, he must have worked really hard to raise that much money this year, and it is good to know that we have the support of the town council as well.

“The club has 450 children and just under 100 senior players at the club. This past season and a bit of the season before we were concentrating on getting more girls involved in football so we are running a project with the FAW called The Huddle which has proved very popular locally.

“This money will help us in setting up all these teams and ensuring all the coaches are badged up and in line with the FAW accreditation programme so the money will help get those people set up on the courses they need to bring these teams to Buckley.”

Emma said that the club, like every other across the country, is no longer playing and therefore has no form of revenue coming in to support building costs and other overheads to keep the club going.

She said: “We are using this time to develop the clubhouse which we opened originally in March. Everyone is involved in getting that done to the best standard.”