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HOWARD/PAULB
Please don't get me going on this recreation ground.
We took over the recreation ground, had weekly training sessions, and before we got to the ground they had druggies and pee artists up there, we moved in, we got goal nets, and goals put up on the ground.
We got the pitch marked out.
We offered to maintain the pitch, mark it out and cut grass.
We played one season in the East Kent Youth league and had to get changing rooms, we had site meetings plans, meetings, with the council who kept telling us the area was of outstanding natural beauty.
We even offered to site the portacabin anywhere within the area that they wanted, still no can do.
The council wanted us to submit plans which would have cost hundreds of pounds and when i asked if we had any chance of getting these plans through i was told
its unlikely.
I did point out to the council did they not find there own priorities strange when they can support a large lorry park ripping up land of outstanding natural beauty close by yet couldn't support a portacabin.
Sadly as the league wouldn't allow us to continue without changing room we had to withdraw from the league costing us hundreds of pounds and after a while we had to stop using this ground.
We would love to have seen this ground better used, with the kids we would have maintained it, all very sad, now i suspect it will go back as it was.
The only losers are the Town and pier activities club kids.
So by taking kids off the street every sunday/saturday we did have plans to run
6 teams from that ground under 11, 12,13,14,15,16
thats over 75 kids that would have been taken off streets each weekend, all lost,
So where one dept (planning) won't allow the recreation to be anything other than green grass, the councils recreation dept was all for us having the portacabin and realy behind us.
We even took 2 of the kids from the club to the councils own youth forum for them to tell the councils youth forum the desperate need for the portacabin, sadly although supportive, the planning dept never moved and they had the last say.
So sadly our scheme had to reduced through a backward looking council.
We made a promise to run football and still run 2 youth sides at the leisure centre every friday from around october to MAY
but now even that has been disrupted because the leisure centre is under strain and the walls have leaked when it rains and the fllor slippery thus the 5 a side league has lost approx 7 weeks play which means for these weeks usua;lly
approx 28 teams of 7 players plus managers/parents was lost revenue
which we have been told was a loss in the region of £1,500 per week. When you bear in mind the trust running the centre is already making losses this won't help.
So as a club we will continue, we will run as much as we can, we will need the support of local residents/volunteers, but more important the councils
without this it will be uphill for us.
But we do this for the kids,and won';t give up.
lets hope others that can help us, do so in the future.
Sorry didn't mean to go on so long, but you did ask!!!