Goblin centre to be expanded

A CONTRACT worth more than £500,000 is set to be awarded to a building firm so an environmental centre can be expanded.North Somerset Council wants to build new top-of-the-range facilities at Goblin Coombe Environmental Centre to help with the education of children from disadvantaged backgrounds.The authority wants to build a new campsite with a dormitory and classrooms at the centre in Plunder Street, Cleeve.The council's executive committee will vote on whether to award the contract to sustainable building firm Framework CDM at a meeting on Tuesday.More than £120,000 would be put forward by the council. The rest of the £574,609 needed has been raised through grants from groups such as the Big Lottery Fund and Portishead Nautical Society.Many of the children using the new campsite will be from underprivileged backgrounds and may have been excluded from school.The courses will all be based on environmental and countryside topics. The new dormitory will be open all year round and will be heated by an eco-friendly woodchip boiler.Councillors say it is important the dormitory opens all year round so the centre can raise enough cash to be self-funding. Currently it is funded by North Somerset.Councillor Peter Kehoe, executive member for children's services, believes awarding the contract is important so the council can help educate children from all walks of life.He said: "It is important that we are able to progress learning in both an academic way and a non-academic way."Some people need to learn by reading a book, but others need to explore, take risks and learn to do things practically."There isn't anything wrong with academic learning but I think we have become a bit one-dimensional in our learning."Different members of society have different styles of learning and the centre will cater for that.