Southwell City seek community support to improve facilities

A club is applying for a significant grant to help improve facilities and bring junior football to the heart of the community.

Southwell City has applied for a grant of £10,000 to £25,000 from the Aviva Community Fund.

The project could see 11- a-side football, including the senior team, move out of town to Brinkley, to continue its development.

The club is looking for community support to give them enough votes for their project to be considered by a judging panel.

Club chairman Mr Paul Merryweather said it was about improving facilities to benefit more than 200 youngsters every year who play junior football at the club.

He said: “We have a thriving club with nearly 40 teams so it’s quite a big operation we have here already at the moment.

“In two years time Southwell City will be going into its 125th year and we want to improve the facilities to something we can be proud of.

“At the moment it’s all ifs and maybes, but we have had around 500 votes already and if it continues in that manner then it could be promising.”

At present, the club uses the town council-owned Memorial Park, an open space on the back of Church Street, Southwell, and an out-of-town site in Brinkley.

Money would be used to extend and remodel Memorial Park’s facilities to make them suitable for boys and girls aged six to 13.

Female changing rooms, improved disabled facilities, child-focused amenities and a usable kitchen would be included in the work.

The clubhouse café and bar would also be re-desigend to become a social hub for all teams.

Clear plan

Mr Merryweather said: “We have a clear plan about the direction we want to take the club. We want to make it accessible to as many people as possible.

“The changes would give us a massive boost and would bring us into the 21st Century.”

In the long-term the club is looking to move all younger age groups up to nine-a-side to Memorial Park to give them use of improved facilities.

Southwell City’s first team, reserves and youth teams playing 11-a-side football could move to Brinkley.

Mr Merryweather said there was hope the site could be upgraded to suit the team’s needs if they were to secure promotion to a higher division.

“The first team has been playing a lot better this season, and if it gets to the point where we can start thinking about promotion then we will need to think about the ground,” he said.

“We can’t improve the Memorial Ground to a standard that would allow us to be promoted. For that you need to have a closed ground where you can charge people.

“That could be a possibility at Brinkley. We have already made some improvements there.”

The redevelopment of the Brinkley site would most likely be paid for through Football Association match funding.

To vote for the project visit www.community-fund.aviva.co.uk/voting/project/view/16-3003