A Barry community dance club will get a new purpose-built floor after the Vale of Glamorgan Council helped it secure funding.

Motion Control Dance is based at the YMCA centre in the town and recently received a £2,106 Sport Wales grant for the project.

That was combined with money generated through club members' own efforts and match funding from the Moondance Foundation and the Third Sector Capital Investment Fund.

The new-sprung floor was installed over Christmas, meaning the 274 members' dance and movement sessions no longer take place on a concrete floor, which can lead to injury problems.

Cllr Kathryn McCaffer, Vale of Glamorgan Council Cabinet Member for Leisure, Arts and Culture, said: "I'm delighted that Motion Control Dance successfully applied for this grant, which has helped them realise the goal of installing a new floor at their studio.

"As a Local Authority, we believe there should be a place for sport for everyone. The installation of this floor means members can now practice on a specially designed surface and that can only be of benefit."

The Place for Sports Grants range from £295 to £50,000, with a total of £1 million available, the funds are allocated by the Welsh Government through Sport Wales,

"The response to the application process was quite staggering really," said Sport Wales' Director of Elite Performance and co-ordinator of the Place for Sport fund, Brian Davies.

"We were able to direct many people to our other grant schemes, but it was a real challenge making the final awards.

"We're delighted that so many clubs, across so many sports, are going to be strengthened because of the investments we've been able to make.

"Hopefully, given the response we had, we can make an excellent case for additional funding from Welsh Government in the future."

Emma Mallam, Director and Founder of Motion Control Dance, said: "We are delighted with our new sprung floor. It really makes a difference to our space – it's a real dance studio now. We can be assured that we are delivering safe and inclusive movement sessions for everyone.

"We hope that the new floor will inspire our members to push themselves further in developing their movement skills as well as encouraging new members to join one of our sessions and enrich their lives through movement.

"Thank you to everyone who helped us raise the funds to purchase such wonderful equipment as well as Moondance Foundation, Sport Wales and the Third Sector Capital Investment Fund for their generous financial support."

For more details on the range of classes available at Motion Control Dance, contact [email protected]