Council Stumps Up Over £280k Towards New £1.2m Pitch At Chichester FC

Chichester District Council has agreed to pay more than £280,000 towards the £1.2m cost of a 3G artificial grass pitch in Oaklands Park.

The money, which will be taken from Section 106 funds allocated specifically for sports and leisure, was approved during a meeting of the full council on Tuesday (September 27).

The plan is to install the pitch at the ground of Chichester City FC, with a programme of community use being drawn up for when the Lillywhites are not playing.

First, though, a grant application has to be submitted to the Football Foundation by January.

A decision is due in April.

If the application is unsuccessful, the project will fall through and the £288,750 will be returned to the S106 pot and used for other sports and leisure projects.

The football club has also applied to the Premier League Stadium Fund for a grant of up to £150,000.

The project was kicked off when the council completed a playing pitch strategy to support the Chichester Local Plan Review.

The strategy identified ‘deficiencies’ when it came to the number of sports pitches in the district.

The following year, Local Football Facility Plans commissioned by the Football Association, the Premier League and Sport England, identified Oaklands as a prioirty project.

In early September, the cabinet approved the use of £11,250 of S106 money to pay for pre-construction work such as the preparation of a planning application.

Roy Briscoe, cabinet member for community services & culture, told the meeting that the artificial pitch would allow for 20 times more use than the grass pitch, which can become a victim of poor weather.

He added that the University of Chichester had already expressed an interest in making use of the pitch and that the programme of community use would particularly focus on under-represented groups such as women and girls, disabled people and the elderly.

While the money was approved, not everyone was in favour of the project.

Sarah Sharp (Green, Chichester South) raised concerns about plastic microfibres being blown into Chichester Harbour, causing contamination.

She also said she was concerned about ‘the huge sums of money being spent on this, adding:

“We have residents in our ward who can’t afford to eat and can’t afford to heat their homes.

“I know this might be our sports policy but I find it very difficult to support it when people are in so much desperate need.”