AFC Portchester new stand is part of £1m dream
A community football club is hoping to get permission for a new clubhouse and stand at its ground.
Plans for the 100-person stand and the pre-fabricated building for the clubhouse at AFC Portchester's home in Wicor Recreation Park are set to go before Fareham's planning committee tomorrow afternoon.
And council officers have recommending the plans be given permission by councillors.
The plans represent the latest stage of the club's ambitions to create a 1m stadium at the park, off Cranleigh Road in Portchester.
Club secretary Jason Brooker said: 'Things are going really well for the club at the moment and we're really trying to push it forward.
'We've got 450 members and 30 teams but we're a community club and we want to provide facilities for other community groups as well.
'And now we've got the enclosed pitch, it could even be used by other sports.'
An earlier phase of the project saw the club create a fenced-in pitch area with pitch-side dug outs, railings around the pitch, floodlighting and turnstiles.
Mr Brooker said: 'The stand is being built through a grant from the Football Foundation and we have raised a lot of money already but there other funding avenues we are pursuing.'
The stand needs to be built to bring the club in line with Wessex League rules.
'Our senior team is ifth in division one with a few games in hand and they're really pushing for promotion, so we need to get this stand built,' he said.
'Confidence is high at the club at the moment and things are doing well for a lot of our teams so it will be good to get this completed.'
One letter opposing the proposals has been sent to the council. It is objecting on the grounds that it will bring extra traffic to an already overcrowded neighbourhood.
But highways officers have rejected this objection, saying it will not affect the overall level of use at the recreation ground.
The stand will sit at the eastern end of the pitch and measure about 14 yards long by three yards tall.
The clubhouse will be a prefabricated construction nearby.
If they are given permission, the club hopes to have the stand installed by the end of the season and the clubhouse put up in time for the start of the next season.
>> Vote in our latest web poll.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Portsmouth
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 24 mph
Wind direction: East
