North Lynn Boxing Club: Austen Moore North Lynn Borough Councillor’s Update.

When I became Reform Borough Councillor for North Lynn I wanted to visit The Discovery Centre as I knew how important it was to the community in North Lynn and that Freebridge offer some great support and activities.

I visited the Discovery Centre on the 29th July 2025 and met with Jodie who works there. The Discovery Centre is owned and managed by Freebridge Community Housing. As Jodie was showing me around I noticed all the Boxing brackets on the walls of the sports hall. An idea immediately sprung to mind. I'm a trustee of a Children's Charity and the young people are always asking for Boxing, plus I used to Box myself and I have a Black Belt in Muay Thai Kickboxing. I asked Jodie the following, "If I can get a Boxing Instructor to come and teach boxing, would Freebridge provide the sports hall for free on one evening so we can provide free boxing sessions for young people in North Lynn"?

I then went and spoke to Mel at Heroes and he offered to provide the instruction with his team. Freebridge said they would provide the sports hall free of charge on a Monday night from 4pm-6pm along with their booking system.

The next issue was equipment. The Discovery Centre only had a few old boxing bags and not many pads or boxing gloves if any. So I spoke to community champion Ben Griffin and we arranged to go and speak to Active Norfolk to see about funding of equipment. Becky at Active Norfolk agreed to fund the equipment which was fantastic. I then spoke to Mel from Heroes to agree what equipment we needed for him to run the sessions and myself and Ben Griffin compiled a list of equipment for Active Norfolk to sign off on. Mel had already given us the best place to source the equipment which was from a local supplier in Hunstanton, so Ben called them to order everything.

Once the equipment had arrived I then realised that many of the brackets were not in the best condition as the bolts had become loose and some were not at the right height. We spoke to Freebridge and they kindly arranged to have them all resecured at the right height and moved onto one wall instead.

The North Lynn Boxing Academy was now ready to begin and we were up and running and ready for the first session which took place on Monday the 12th January 2025.

As North Lynn Borough Councillor I'm so grateful to Freebridge for providing the venue free of charge, booking system and promotion. Mel and his team for agreeing to provide the instruction. When I went to meet Mel at Heroes and made the proposal he accepted straight away without hesitation. Also thanks to Active Norfolk for providing the funding for the Boxing Equipment. Also a big thanks to Ben Griffin who has been so helpful and told so many young people about the club.