Planning Application for Football Ground Redevelopment

Newbury Community Football Group (NCFG) submit a planning application for an innovative redevelopment of the Faraday Road Football Ground, which will enable multiple use for the whole community

Today NCFG submitted a planning application to redevelop the community owned Faraday Road Football Ground in Newbury. The proposals consist of 4 all-weather (3G) pitches, 1 full size, 1 youth size and 2 mini-soccer pitches. 3G pitches enable many games to be played everyday and will go a long way to addressing the shortage of football pitches in West Berkshire as identified by the FA in a recent report.

The application is also supported by a recent survey conducted by NCFG to the footballing community across Newbury which identified that 91% of respondents felt that Newbury did not have enough quality outdoor football venues.

Lee McDougall, spokesman for Newbury Community Football Group said:

“This Planning Application is an exciting step towards providing enough football pitches for the community to use and will provide an excellent venue for children’s youth and senior football teams. We are determined to ensure there are enough quality facilities for our children and the wider community to use for the long term, to develop their sports skills and also to promote health and wellbeing in our community. Furthermore this scheme will not involve the use of any public funds”

The survey comes on the back of some significant successes for NCFG. They helped Newbury FC gain a 2 year extension to their lease from West Berkshire Council and in November 2016, they successfully gained the status of an “Asset of Community Value” for the town centre football ground. In 2017 NCFG conducted the widest survey of community football facilities very conducted in West Berkshire, which showed an overwhelming level of dissatisfaction of Newbury’s football facilities by an extensive range of community football clubs, teams and participants.