Letter of support for NCFG’s stadium plans from Newbury Ladies Manager Sue Hewett, read out at the Newbury Town Council Planning & Highways meeting 10/09/18:
Introduction to Newbury Ladies FC
1. Firstly,
I would like to thank you for having me here today and for allowing me to have
a couple of minutes of your time to address you.
2. My
name is Sue Hewett and I am the First Team Manager of Newbury Ladies Football
Club.
3. This
is something that I have been doing for the last 7 years and before that, I was
a player for Newbury Ladies for the previous 7 years.
4. Our
football club is a successful, long established team. We’ve been in existence since 2003.
5. Our
First Team plays at a high level in the Women’s game, against teams like
Southampton and AFC Bournemouth – we also compete every year in the Women’s
F.A. Cup.
6. We
currently run 2 adult female teams, with participation starting at the age of
16.
7. We
currently have a total of 38 players.
8. We
could easily run more teams for both women and girls – in fact we would love to
expand and start teams for girls in the younger age groups under the Newbury
Ladies Football Club umbrella – but a lack of good facilities prevents this.
9. The
biggest drop-out rates for Youth Football is by 16-18 year olds – and this is a
really vulnerable age group.
10. Our
Ladies teams currently play our home matches on the Donnington Recreation
Ground, which is good – BUT we can’t train there in the winter evenings, as
there are no floodlights – and in the poorer weather conditions in the winter
we do find that games get called off and postponed – because it has only one grass
pitch.
11. Also,
we’re not allowed to play our FA Cup games at Donnington because we need a
larger pitch – it needs to be full size – the pitch dimensions required in
order to enter the FA Cup competition must be a minimum of 100 metres in length
and 64 metres wide – and the pitch at Donnington is 10 metres too short,
otherwise we’d be extending into the cricket square, which we can’t do.
12. So,
as a Football Club, we’ve had to be very nomadic when it comes to the FA
Cup. We’ve had some really terrific Cup
ties in recent seasons, but sadly we can’t play those matches at Donnington –
nor in the actual town of Newbury that we are representing.
13. This
is such a shame for our players because we are playing in a national high
profile competition, such as the FA Cup, which has its final at Wembley and yet
we cannot currently play those important games in Newbury.
14. If
we are given a home tie in this season’s FA Cup then we will travel to Lambourn
Football Club, who are very kindly allowing us to play there.
15. This
problem of finding a suitable pitch and facilities will get worse for us if we
are fortunate enough to be promoted in the future, as higher leagues require
better facilities – the current Faraday Road ground has these – it has for
example the good standard changing rooms, adequate showers, a covered area for
supporters, etc.
16. And
when it comes to midweek evening training in the winter months, we had been
able to hire just a third of a pitch at Park House School for the last 2
seasons, but this slot hasn’t been made available to us for the coming season –
so currently we haven’t been able to secure a winter training venue – this is a
real headache for us – in fact it’s a real worry for me personally – as without
proper training during the week, our players won’t be able to keep improving as
they have been.
17. The
problem is, there is a real shortage of quality pitches in the area generally –
but especially 3G pitches for training and playing matches.
18. So
why is 3G so important?
19. The
Football Association conducted a recent survey of West Berkshire and it
highlighted that the area was actually 4 full size 3G pitches short to meet the
demand of the West Berks community.
20. A
3G pitch is an artificial pitch that can be used over 10 times more a week than
a grass pitch.
21. Third
generation or 3G artificial grass pitches are recognised as durable, safe,
year-round playing surfaces, able to withstand intensive use and all kinds of
weather.
22. They
mean more people can benefit from all the associated positive social and health
impacts of participating in regular physical activity.
23. The
FA extol the benefits of 3G for wider use in the grassroots football community
– their Report says: “They are a very useful asset and capable of delivering 50
plus hours per week as compared to a natural turf pitch which can deliver
perhaps five hours per week.
24. The
FA chairman has vowed to deliver a “radical new approach” to grassroots
football that would reverse years of neglect of shabby, waterlogged municipal
facilities by investing heavily in new 3G pitches and overhauling its approach
to youth coaching.
25. Newbury
is home to over 45,000 people and it is set to grow by about 6,000 over the
next 10 years.
26. All
of the evidence concludes that sporting facilities are indisputably essential
to maintaining a healthy community.
27. So,
what we need – is the same type of facilities as the current Faraday Road
Ground has – but a 3G pitch – not grass.
28. Thank
you again for your time this evening.
