Question
Re Laurel Park 3G pitch proposal, there are existing sites in the very close locality (literally within walking distance of Laurel Park - no emissions) existing hard courts and floodlights in place. One is Reading FC (based outside Wokingham Borough) with state of the art training facilities at Bearwood, (inside the Borough) 1.6 miles from Laurel Park. A condition of the planning approval for that site was that it opened for community use. Yet, in the WBC letter to residents (received by very few residents), it stated that one of the groups that will use the 3G pitch will be Reading FC.
There is a 3G 1.8 miles and another 3G 3.4 miles from Laurel Park. We are told grass pitches are running at full capacity, yet you are intent on digging up four of these grass pitches. Grassroots, will Laurel Park FC play their league games on a plastic pitch?
Minutes:
Question
Re Laurel Park 3G pitch proposal, there are existing sites in the very close locality (literally within walking distance of Laurel Park - no emissions) existing hard courts and floodlights in place. One is Reading FC (based outside Wokingham Borough) with state of the art training facilities at Bearwood, (inside the Borough) 1.6 miles from Laurel Park. A condition of the planning approval for that site was that it opened for community use. Yet, in the WBC letter to residents (received by very few residents), it stated that one of the groups that will use the 3G pitch will be Reading FC.
There is a 3G 1.8 miles and another 3G 3.4 miles from Laurel Park. We are told grass pitches are running at full capacity, yet you are intent on digging up four of these grass pitches. Grassroots, will Laurel Park FC play their league games on a plastic pitch?
Answer
Teams can now only use pitches for match purposes as long as they have the FIFA 5 Star rating, of which a 3G pitch is. As such there is a high demand for 3G pitches, because teams are having to travel long distances across the Borough, and many are having to play their home games outside of the Borough. We are therefore clear that we need such a valuable facility in our community. What we are not clear on is on the optimum site for it, which is why we are undertaking a full evaluation of options as mentioned previously
Reading Football Club Community Trust, which you mentioned, is one of the main users mentioned, this is a registered charity, and is the community arm of the football club, engaging, developing, and educating young people in various community groups in various locations in the Borough. Officers have informed the planning department with regards to the question regarding the football club training facilities being used by them and will look into this further.
Supplementary Question:
Laurel Park FC have to travel just a 5 minutes’ walk to Maiden Erlegh for their winter training, so that is not outside the Borough. The Football Foundation have a Grass Pitch Improvement Strategy. They state that the majority of football is still played on grass pitches. They also state that improving these pitches are a priority, and to ensure that affiliated football fixtures are played on a quality football pitch, and keep grass roots football where it should be played, guess where, there is a clue there. Yes, it is on grass and not plastic.
The Football Foundation Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund provides grants also to enhance or sustain these pitches. This one could be used to improve those grass pitches at Laurel Park, and where grass roots football has been played for many, many, many years. I read that 3G pitches have a 10-year life cycle.
Laurel Park sits in what, when it was built, was the biggest housing estate in Europe, surrounded by housing, so why can’t and don’t you enhance what is already there for the football community and let the wider community still enjoy what is at the heart of that community, and for generations to come? This is what residents need and want. A 3G pitch at Laurel Park would not benefit residents.
Supplementary Answer:
I can assure you that we have, wherever we have tried to build 3G pitches, we have also improved the grass pitches as well, but there is a hell of a lot of demand for the 3G pitches because of the quality that these 3G pitches offer. We are trying to meet that demand within the Borough. We are trying to stop the teams going away from the Borough, to play their home games away from the Borough, and therefore we are trying to reduce our carbon footprint by building these facilities.