Swale Borough Council Scores Yet Another Own Goal!!

The Sheppey Sunday League have reported that after nearly 5 years of campaigning and meetings with Swale Borough Council to get Local Football Pitches and Facilities up to the standards of the 21 st Century, with promises of improvement and investment, along with the assistance of funding for all of the Borough’s Parks in a Long Term Plan, that all projects have been shelved.

Swale Borough Council have finally come off the subs bench and scored a massive own goal by shelving any plans of a Football Foundation bid for Seager Road in a complete u-turn on promises made over the past 2 years that has seen a total waste of Council Tax payers money.

Sheppey Sunday League Secretary Mark Rogers said, “I am upset, angry betrayed and really at a loss for words of how we have all been deceived and betrayed over the past few years.”

The timetable of events stem back to 2004-2005 when the state of Pitches and Facilities in the Borough were first highlighted by their steady decline and the increasing hikes in rental charges. The Sheppey Sunday League, after years of trying to get beyond the Council’s Officers to discuss the issue, finally got their chance in March 2007 when, after a press article highlighted in the local press, they managed to get to the ears of the people who hold the purse strings when Swale Borough Council’s Portfolio Holder for Sport, Cllr Gerry Lewin, agreed to a meeting to discuss the issue.

March 2007: At this meeting Mr Lewin was shocked at the information that the Sheppey Sunday League supplied re pitch fees and usage etc, compared with other Local Authorities. It was agreed at this meeting that a long term plan was needed and that a priority list of works was made up to start in the summer of 2007 i.e. the provision of a basic toilet on some grounds in Sheppey and Sittingbourne. The plans for the facilities at Thistle Hill, Sheppey and East Hall, Sitttingbourne were also shown at this meeting and told that these projects were funded by 106 money and that they would be up and running in 2 years, and to look at the prospect of starting a Football Trust to apply for Football Foundation Grants.

It was agreed to have follow up meetings every 4/6 weeks.

To date:

At certain pitches in Sheppey and Sittingbourne there are still pitches with no basic facility as a toilet.

Thistle Hill and East Hall are both still not ready and earliest possible date given is Summer 2010?

Between March 2007 to July 2007: The Council and the League held regular meetings and workshops with the KCFA and the Football Foundation. It was agreed by both parties that a Football Partnership between the League and the Council would be the best option to go down to secure funding rather than a Trust at this time.

The Sheppey Sunday League offered to work together with the Council Officers to do the research into the bid as the Council Officers hours on this was limited, but after several meetings and with a provision of a sum of around £60,000 to be spent initially on this project, Swale Borough Council decided that it would be best to employ an independent company to undertake the work of preparing a Football Foundation Bid.

February 2008: The Council finally unravel a proposal put forward by Strategic Leisure Ltd to undertake the work of doing the Football Foundation Application for the project at Seager Road, Sheerness at an initial cost of £20,500 plus expenses. This project was to be the blueprint for the Council to upgrade other parks in the Borough with the Officers gaining the experience of working on this project. They would then be able to carry this over to arranging Funding for the other Parks in the Borough, hence saving money.

Regular contact and meetings between the League, Council and Strategic Leisure was to be arranged to push this through as quickly as possible.

April 2008: After a meeting with the KCFA Chief Executive Keith Masters, KCFA Development Officer Paul Dolan and Swale Borough Council (Sheppey Sunday League not invited!) Mr Len Myatt - Leisure Manager commented that the Council had now formed strong links with the KCFA which would now be invaluable to the Council in helping organise Football Strategies for the future.

November 2008: Strategic Leisure Ltd produces a draft report for the Seager Road Project for discussion and observation which the League looked at and reported that everything looked fine from the Leagues prospective.

Since February 2008 to this report coming out only 1 further meeting was held.

April 2009: After again many months of silence the League Secreatary Mark Rogers contacted Mr Graeme Tuff - Parks Manager to enquire what was going on, to be told that there were issues over the buildings and that the Councils Planning Department was looking into it and that I would be informed of any progress.

June 2009: Further contact made with Mr Tuff to find out the latest and to let him know that after a conversation with Mark Rogers and Paul Dolan that the Football Foundation bids system was being reformed and that we may miss the boat if the Council were not up to speed. Mr Tuff agreed to arrange a meeting.

6th August 2009 Meeting Finally Arranged

The Council showed plans for the building from Strategic Leisure with a costing of £1.6 million which was totally absurd even to anyone not in the building industry. Paul Dolan- KCFA commented that on projects of a similar size that he had been helping on the average cost was around the £600,000 mark and in one case a builder was doing the job for £150,000! The question was asked how long had the Council had this information to which they advised that they had received this in January 2009. Why no meetings to discuss this earlier??

Mr Lewin - Portfolio Holder then unloaded the bombshell that the Council had no funds available or likely to have any available to put into projects like this so everything was being shelved. In February 2008 the funds were secured and set aside according to Mr Lewin.!!

Mr Dolan commented that he had been trying to contact the Council for nearly a year to set up a meeting to no avail and that Swale was one of two Councils in the whole of Kent that were not working alongside the FA in helping with projects for grass football. In April 2008 Mr Myatt commented on the strong link between the Council and the FA!

Where has this link gone, did it exist or have the Council got no interest in Local Sports??

The 11 v 11 Adult game Countrywide is declining and yet in the Swale Area Football Participation in the 11 v 11 game is above the National Average and is growing year on year.

League Secretary Mark Rogers added, “ We feel totally betrayed and feel that this whole exercise was to take the heat out of the kitchen with gestures that the Council are working hard to provide facilities in the Community after comments were made in the press in 2007. It seems that they decided it would be cheaper to waste tax payers money on employing an Independent Consultant to do a job that we could have done collectively and to blame their costings on shelving plans, rather than put investment into the local grass roots game.

The 106 funding projects that the Council have been given are still not finished WHY? Perhaps this money has been relocated elsewhere!

My main concern is now that they will look to start selling off parks to developers.

In this time where youngsters are criticised for hanging around on street corners and showing no respect, our League and everybody else connected to grass roots football in the Swale Area have all worked hard to push the Sport in the Borough and have made a major impact which is reflected in our participation figures rising and where Nationally they are falling.

I am very angry and ashamed that the hierarchy at Swale Borough Council have treated their Local Sportsmen with this contempt and that all they have done over the past 5 years is to play their own version of ‘POLITICAL FOOTBALL’

It’s a shame that this game has no Red Cards!!