A royal visitor

The Princess Royal was in Cambridgeshire today (September 24) to recognise two achievements at the Grafham Water Centre.
Princess Anne visited the Centre – which is run by Cambridgeshire County Council – to celebrate 15 years of Sailability and to officially open the Centre’s refurbished and extended buildings.

Sailability, which is based at the Centre, offers sailing for the disabled. Princess Anne is Patron of the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) Sailability.

The £2.5m refurbishment of the Centre included new residential accommodation for children on short activity trips, extensive remodelling of the existing buildings to provide conference and seminar facilities, new dining room and new reception area.

A new boat store has also been provided to house boats and equipment, and the Centre has greatly improved its access for disabled visitors.

The development programme was funded with a loan from Cambridgeshire County Council and a grant of £500,000 from Cambridgeshire Horizons as a contribution to improving infrastructure.

Cllr David Harty, Cabinet Member for Learning, said: “The main aim of the Centre is ‘to change young people's lives’ and in order to meet this aim, a range of needs had been identified – such as improving access for disabled people, improving facilities for customers by upgrading and refurbishing existing accommodation and providing new car parking and changing areas. I am delighted to see these have been achieved, and honoured that Princess Anne could help us celebrate their completion, and Sailability’s anniversary.”