The Davie Cooper Centre is a Company Limited by Guarantee with charitable status. To date we have four Directors one of whom acts as a Company Secretary and we are supported by Macdonalds Solicitors and Stevenson & Kyles Chartered Accountants. Gareth Hoskins Architects Ltd were commissioned to conduct a feasibility study and have produced our initial project design.
As from November 2009, we have been working with the architects firm IDPartnership-Midlands on the final designs for the Centre, with the planning application submitted to West Dunbartonshire Council on 24th May 2010.
We are a small registered Scottish charity formed by a group of individuals and volunteers from a variety of professional backgrounds including commerce, finance, human resources and nursing. In addition, we are all aware of the many complex issues which families encounter on a daily basis due to our personal family experiences of special needs children.
Davie Cooper was a Scottish international football player who started his professional career at Clydebank Football Club. He moved to Rangers FC, then onto Motherwell FC before returning to Clydebank FC towards the end of his playing career. At the age of 39, whilst coaching young children, he collapsed and tragically died.
When Clydebank FC planned to build a new stadium on Gt Western Road in West Dunbartonshire they intended to name it after Davie Cooper as a tribute to a highly respected sportsman in the town where he began and ended his career. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond their control, the stadium was never built.
At that time a group aiming to build an outdoors focused facility for special needs children and their families was unsuccessfully searching for a suitable site.
The former shareholders of Clydebank FC generously decided to lease two acres of the land planned for the stadium to this group for a 99 year peppercorn rent in order that The Davie Cooper Centre for special needs children and their families would now be a tribute to him.
With the endorsement of Davie's family, the official launch month of the charity was planned to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Davie Cooper's death. The irony being that in this month of March 2005 two of Davie's former clubs, Rangers and Motherwell, met in the CIS Cup Final. With the support of football fans, the football teams, the media, the Scottish Football League and their cup sponsors - the Co-operative Insurance Society, the Davie Cooper Centre charity launch was not only highly successful but also exceptionally emotive.
Subject to the continuing support of West Dunbartonshire Council and by developing existing financial support in obtaining the necessary funding, the charity aim to have a purpose built outdoors focused activity centre up and running by end 2010, an outreach programme operational by 2011, and a further building phase, a respite facility, operational by end 2012.
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