A sailing and canoeing club in west Suffolk is “delighted” to have been awarded £8,000, which it will put towards extending its jetty.

Yesterday, representatives from the Asda store in Bury St Edmunds presented the cheque to Mike Steele, who is a committee member of the St Edmundsbury Sailing & Canoeing Association (SESCA), at Lackford Lake.

The Asda Foundation has given out 70 grants over the last couple of weeks as part of the firm’s 50th birthday celebrations.

Mr Steele said the club, which has more than 100 members including groups such as schools and sea cadets, could now get the extension in place very shortly.

He said: “We are absolutely delighted. It will allow us to do a number of things: to allow the boats used by disabled people to come alongside and to allow us to tie things off without causing damage to the foreshore. We can also use the jetty for running training courses. So there are quite a range of advantages for us.”

One of the group members of the club is WASH Sailability, which gives disabled people the chance to enjoy the activity.

Mr Steele said the jetty extension would mean they could get in and out of their boats more easily.