Wardle Football Club closer to extending pitch and signing new lease

Wardle Football Club is closer to extending pitch and signing new lease, two years after Rochdale Online reported the club was to benefit from what is known as 'section 106 money'.

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/4/sport-news/97946/local-sports-pitches-to-get-%C2%A3335k-boost

Wardle FC will get the go-ahead with the plans should no-one object to the proposed diversion of a disused footpath on the fields at Rutherford Park.

The path, which is currently overgrown and unused, will be diverted whilst remaining on the field. It’s estimated the diversion of the path will cost approximately £5,000, which has been recommended by Rochdale Borough Council to be funded by the section 106 money.

It was not known when the budget was allocated that the public right of way would require diverting.

The club is also set to sign a new 99-year lease, first put forward in 2015. The 99-year lease would cost £1,000 a year for the first 15 years and then a ‘peppercorn’ rent for the next 84 years.

This would be cheaper than the club’s current £400 per year rent at Rutherford Park, and the £750 per year cost of hiring grounds at Firgrove for one of the club’s three adult teams, saving the club £150 per year.

Club Chairman Rik Fielding said: “We hope to sign the lease in the next month or so. We’re setting the foundations for future generations to play football. Football has to be affordable to all; it takes kids off the street and gives them a purpose.

“I’m very positive about what will happen, and I’d like to think no-one will object to the path being moved as it’s still on the same land. I’m hoping everything will begin to fall into place by around June.”

The pitches at Rutherford Park have already benefitted from improved drainage and reseeding in July 2016, and new goal posts in October. A temporary clubhouse is currently in place, with a permanent one to follow 12 months after extending the pitch, which will also bring extra income to the club from other teams and a bar.

The pitch would extend one of the two junior pitches a second adult pitch, which would allow adults to play football in the evening and the children in the morning. Currently, Wardle FC has three adult teams and six juniors.

In October 2016, the footpath was surveyed by the Rochdale Ramblers Association who found the footpath was not accessible for members of the public to walk along safely.

A spokesman for the Ramblers said: “We found that from the broken stile south of Howarth Knowl, there is no evidence of the line which Wardle Footpath 15 should follow, or any way markers affixed to the broken stile. The surface of the footpath has not been maintained. It has therefore completely disappeared, and that for a stretch of approximately 100 metres from the stile towards the football pitch area, the footpath is overgrown by grass and reeds, which currently stand over a metre in height. All of which means this section of Wardle Footpath 15 is currently not accessible for members of the general public to walk along in safety, as it should be.”

Mark Robinson, Assistant Director of Planning and Development at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “We’ve been working closely with Wardle Football Club to secure improvements over a period of time and have already given them £25,000 for a temporary clubhouse, after their previous accommodation fell into disrepair.

“The extension of the pitch has taken longer than expected because we have encountered a number of issues along the way, which we are currently working to resolve. The £335,000 section 106 money is intended to support sports facilities across the borough and £44,332 of this has been allocated to Wardle Football Club.”