News archive

We asked who was involved in organising the stand demolition and WBC sent us an email trail of officers who were liasing with Newbury FC and Hungerford Town FC officials. WBC say they don’t own it, so are allowing Newbury FC to sell it to Hungerford Town FC.
Read the details from the reply on 05/10/18 here

Still not heard from Nick Carter who has had more than 10 working days to compose a response…

From: deputychair@ncfg.uk

Sent: 22 September 2018

To: nick.carter@westberks.gov.uk

Cc: Graham.Jones@westberks.gov.uk;
James.Fredrickson@westberks.gov.uk;
Bob.Sharples@sportengland.org;
richard.benyon.mp@parliament.uk;
editor@newburynews.co.uk; fiona.tomas@newburynews.co.uk; advisor@ncfg.uk; chair@ncfg.uk; press@ncfg.uk;
treasurer@ncfg.uk; secretary@ncfg.uk

Subject: Spectator stand removal from Newbury Football Ground

Dear Nick,

I am the deputy chair of Newbury Community Football Group
and this letter is for your attention, but I have also copied it to other
interested parties for openness, clarity and publication (please see cc
addresses).

Regarding the application by Hungerford Town FC to demolish
the large, seated, covered spectator stand (which has been a permanent
structure for around 25 years) at Newbury Football Ground, Faraday Road, please
can you read the background and ownership-related statements below and then
respond to the questions which follow?

Background

NCFG’s primary objective is to save the football ground and
retain it for its purpose of organised football matches at the higher levels of
league football where a top quality playing surface, pitch & perimeter
fencing, floodlights, changing rooms, WCs, clubhouse and spectator stands are
required. Removal of the stand greatly reduces the ground’s ability to function
and is effectively a “change of use”. Note that it achieved a higher
ground grading than F (National League System step 5) before the council
removed the tenant’s security of tenure, thus excluding the tenant club from
joining high leagues and there is still no planned site development for some
years to come.

Ownership

Newbury Town FC had the stand erected before they folded in
1995 after which time the ground assets remained the property of the council.

AFC Newbury FC leased the ground from the council from 1996
until they folded in 2007 and again the ground assets remained in the council’s
ownership.

Newbury FC leased the ground from 2008 until 2018 and when
they were evicted in June, the ground assets still belonged to the council, as
landlord.

The various council’s football club leases mention the stand
as the landlord’s asset.

West Berks Council lists the land and permanent buildings on
its asset register.

There has never been any mention of the stand belonging to
our NCFG partners Newbury FC in previous correspondence since NCFG formed in
late 2015.

Cllr Anthony Pick (chair) at the recent Newbury Town Council
planning meeting on 10 September stated that WBC owns the stand.

WBC’s Asset of Community Value lists the stand as an
integral part of the protected ground, also covered by cultural facility and
green infrastructure policies.

WBC’s response to NCFG’s stage 2 complaint in late August
stated that there were no plans to demolish any part of the facility.

The above statement was made round about the same time as
HTFC’s notification to demolish.

The prior notification in early September by HTFC to
demolish suddenly changed on 29 September to no longer needing planning
involvement which WBC was fully aware of.

WBC no longer receives rent from NFC and it would appear
that WBC is about to sell a protected asset.

Questions

Given the above statements, please can you present proof to
NCFG of:

1. who owns the stand and why/how it may have changed hands?

2. who has the authority to allow it to be dismantled and
why?

3. who is selling or releasing the stand and for how much?

4. who has been in contact with HTFC, NFC or their
representatives regarding the demolition?

5. the council’s intent to replace the stand, should it be
removed.

We have around 2000 local supporters through our online and
paper petitions, around a 100 of whom attended our recent public consultation,
who support NCFG’s efforts to enhance the ground for future use. They are all
voting, West Berks constituents and would be keen to know what the ground’s
landlord/building owner has to say, as would the Football Association, Sport
England and HTFC (who regrettably find themselves in the centre of this
controversy).

To conclude, we believe that the stand cannot be touched
until these questions have been answered with proper evidence by WBC so, as
their main spokesperson on this matter, thank you in anticipation of your
timely, full reply.

Yours sincerely,

John Stewart

NCFG Deputy Chair

www.ncfg.uk

deputychair@ncfg.uk

Letter to NWN

From: chair@ncfg.uk

Sent: 17 September 2018 11:38

To: editor@newburynews.co.uk

Subject: Great support from the public, shame about our Councillors

Dear Sir/Madam

Great support
from the public, shame about our Councillors

Newbury Community
Football Group (NCFG) held a very successful public consultation last Thursday
13th September at the Document House regarding their recently submitted
planning application for a state of the art 3G
pitch and new clubhouse facilities at Faraday Road as over 100 people attended
over the two sessions. The interest shown by general public reflects the
increasing public awareness and support for NCFG’s campaign to save and develop
Newbury’s football ground. The current NCFG petition, launched only 10
days has already received support from 1800 people.

This
is in stark contrast to the interest shown by our local Councillors.

NCFG
sent letters and emails to all 52 West Berkshire Councillors and 14 Newbury
Town Councillors (66 in total) inviting them to “Councillors
pre -public consultation discussion”. The invitation stated that “Rightly or wrongly we
feel that the Councillors of West Berkshire Council and Newbury Town Council
are not fully aware of why a significant number of the local electorate and
their young families, think that it is really important to preserve and enhance
a community football ground in Newbury. As such we would like the opportunity
to arrange a meeting with you to discuss the key points and to share with you
with the evidence that makes this such a crucial and important local issue. We
sense that the Council’s current position is entrenched in as much as a
“vision” floated a number of years ago could mean that the town’s only football
ground will be sacrificed to build 80 or so more flats near the town
centre. ”

Only
5 Councillors accepted the invitation and 21 declined. However even more
worrying for local democracy and despite being sent a reminder 40 Councillors
totally ignored the invitation. Despite this really disappointing
response from the Councillors NCFG will try again to arrange another session
for Councillors to ensure that more than 5 of them will have the chance to
understand why this is such an important issue.

Paul Morgan

Newbury Community Football Group (NCFG)

Newbury Today news reports on town council planning meeting outcomes from 10/09/18:

Newbury Town Council planning meeting – removal of stand, click here

Newbury Town Council planning meeting – 3G pitch buildings & car park, click here

We had around a hundred attendees at our two successful public consultations at Document House on Thursday 13th September. If you have any further questions about NCFG or our football ground improvement planning application, please contact us.

Our thanks to Michelle & Lee at Document House 🙂

PowerPoint presentation here

Design & Access Statement here

Q & A sheet here

3G ground layout here

Please email press@ncfg.uk for Lee McDougall, chair@ncfg.uk for Paul Morgan or general enquiries to info@ncfg.uk

And thank you to those few councillors who could make it to the briefing… if you wish to tell West Berks Council what you think, please contact their CEO nick.carter@westberks.gov.uk

The supporters stand at Faraday Road was bought by chairman Martin Deaner and installed by Arena Seating for Newbury Town FC who folded in 1995.
AFC Newbury used it 1996-2007 while they rented the ground from WBC.
Newbury FC used it 2008-2018 while they rented the ground from WBC.
Did either of these clubs actually buy the stand?
West Berks Council has owned the ground on behalf of its constituents all this time.
So WBC owns it, right? (Newbury Town Council thinks WBC does, but WBC CEO Nick Carter says Newbury FC does)
On 3 occasions WBC has acquired the ground and its assets when tenants have left, the latest on 24 June 2018 when NFC was evicted.
Can WBC sell it?
Can NFC sell it?
Not easily; it’s protected as part of WBC’s Asset of Community Value (ACV) submitted by NCFG, but NCFG doesn’t own it.
WBC has also stated they have no plans to demolish any part of the ground, yet.
Nor have they ever mentioned that NFC owns it.
It’s a massive permanent structure and hardly portable!
NCFG objects to its hasty dismantling and Sport England supports this objection.
A bit of a problem for Hungerford Town FC who understandably want to acquire it!
Newbury Weekly News is seeking answers…

To WBC:

Subject: What’s the fuss about – Newbury
doesn’t need a football ground – does it?

Following
the email / letter that I sent to you individually last week I am disappointed
to advise you that out of the 52 invitations sent out I have so far received
only 8 replies. 2 Councillors have accepted and 6 have declined.

I am aware that there is a briefing at West Berks Council
regarding the local lottery that starts at 5.30pm and this may be a reason why
you feel that you cannot attend, but this does not explain why 44 Councillors
have not responded (so far) at all to the invitation that I sent out a week ago
now. It maybe that I will receive a lot more responses over the next few
days but as stated in my email below this is a really important local issue
that deserves and demands time for a detailed discussion.

In order to help with your diary management can I suggest
that we bring forward the “Councillors pre
-public consultation discussion” from 5.00pm to
4.45pm this Thursday as it would allow you time to attend this discussion (for
30 minutes) and also allow you to get to the 5.30pm local lottery session,
which is a 5 minute walk away?

Due to the strength of public opinion we are genuinely
surprised that it would appear that our Councillors do not seem interested in
attending a meeting to discuss the key
points and to listen to the evidence that makes this such a crucial and
important local issue. The importance of this
local issue is illustrated by the fact that within only a week over 1500 (1200
online and 300 paper) have signed our petition supporting the NCFG
planning application. Details of this
petition can be found on our website: http://www.ncfg.uk/
please take a look.

I look forward to your reply.

Paul Morgan

On behalf of Newbury Community Football
Group (NCFG)

To NTC:

Subject: What’s the fuss about – Newbury doesn’t need a
football ground – does it?

Following
the email / letter that I sent to you individually last week I am disappointed
to advise you that out of the 14 invitations that I sent to Newbury Town
Councillors (who are not West Berkshire Councillors) I have so far received
only 2 replies. 1 Councillor has accepted and 1 has declined.

I am aware that there is a briefing at West Berks Council
regarding the local lottery that starts at 5.30pm and this may be a reason why
you feel that you cannot attend, but this does not explain why 12 Councillors
have not responded (so far) at all to the invitation that I sent out a week ago
now. It maybe that I will receive a more responses over the next few days
but as stated in my email below this is a really important local issue that
deserves and demands time for a detailed discussion.

In order to help with your diary management can I suggest
that we bring forward the “Councillors pre
-public consultation discussion” from 5.00pm to
4.45pm this Thursday as it would allow you time to attend this discussion (for
30 minutes) and also allow you to get to the 5.30pm local lottery session,
which is a 5 minute walk away?

Due to the strength of public opinion we are genuinely
surprised that it would appear that our Councillors do not seem interested in
attending a meeting to discuss the key
points and to listen to the evidence that makes this such a crucial and
important local issue. The importance of this
local issue is illustrated by the fact that within only a week over 1500 (1200
online and 300 paper) have signed our petition supporting the NCFG planning
application. Details of this petition
can be found on our website: http://www.ncfg.uk/
please take a look.

I look forward to your reply.

Paul Morgan

On behalf of Newbury Community Football
Group (NCFG)