Wrexham Council To Consider Football Pitch Lease Proposals

Wrexham Council is set to consider plans to offer their football pitches for lease to sporting clubs in the Wrexham area.

A report which will go before the authority’s executive board on Tuesday outlines a new policy for dealing with requests to use council owned pitches.

Over the past two years a number of football clubs and sports associations in the Wrexham area have shown an interest in leasing the council’s football pitches.

Part of the reason for the increase in interest is the need for club’s to bring their pitches up to the FAW’s increasingly stringent standards.

It would allow them to get grants and update facilities potentially to include pitchside barriers and dug outs.

However, Wrexham Council’s parks and countryside rights of way manager Martin Howarth stressed that clubs would have to present a very good business plan and guarantee that members of the public have access to the pitch in order to have their application approved.

He said that out of the authority’s 37 pitches only one or two would be likely to be leased should the proposals go through.

The merit of any application would be decided based on a scoring mechanism.

Mr Howarth added that consultation had been undertaken with football governing bodies and both town and community councils regarding the proposals.