A £350,000 revamp is planned at Whitehaven Harbour Youth Project, but it needs help to hit its fundraising target.

The charity wants to refurbish the sports hall, overhaul the climbing wall and make other improvements to its premises on Swingpump Lane.

It has got £130,000 from the Garfield Weston Anniversary Fund and £70,000 from Sport England. And it has been given about £35,000 worth of support in kind from the Nuclear Community Network, a group of nuclear companies working together to deliver social benefit. This includes providing a project manager to source contractors for the work.

The charity is seeking other grants to help make up the funding shortfall. It is also crowdfunding to raise another £5,000 which, if successful, will be match funded by Sport England.

A Christmas fair will be held on Saturday, December 22 from 10am to 1pm, with stalls, refreshments and a raffle. Items to sell can be dropped off at the project, and people are invited to book stalls.

Launched in 1996, the project works with about 1,100 people aged between seven and 25 each year. It runs 10 different weekly sessions, catering for everything from different age groups to people with special educational needs, each attracting 10 to 70 people. It is also used by other groups.

Its sports hall is well used but its age and the fact it was not built as a high-spec sports facility mean it is cold, damp and becoming unusable. The work will see new, more efficient heating and lighting, and a sports-hall-quality floor to replace the existing lino installed, and the climbing wall improved and extended, allowing more young people to use it.

Storage will be improved and the project's drying room, where outdoor equipment is dried, will be moved so things no longer have to be dried in the sports hall.

Added features, including facilities to play music via bluetooth, are also on the cards.

Bosses hope to complete the work by October 2019 but the project cannot start until all the money is in.

Gina McCabe, project manager at the charity, said: "I came into work one day and there was a cheque for £130,000 on my desk. It was the best day ever. It feels like it's going to happen We just need to keep moving with this last step to make sure it does. We are so excited about the future of the harbour youth project. It's had an incredible life so far and this will get it ready for the next step and give the young people what they deserve from this space."

To donate to the revamp project visit www.crowdfunder.co.uk/whyp-refurb

To take a stall at the fair or find out if you can help in any other way, visit www.whyp.org.uk or call 01946 690 404.