This year will see Stafford Town FC become a sporting hub for the local community thanks to a massive £647,000 funding grant from the Football Foundation and the CCDP.
The Charter Standard Community Club have been awarded almost £500,000 from the UK’s leading sports charity, The Football Foundation, while Sport England’s CCDP initiative has offered £150,000 to the new clubhouse and pitches project in Riverway.
Delivered by The Football Foundation, the Community Club Development Programme is a Government funded scheme that aims to provide a link between local football clubs and the surrounding area.
Stafford Town’s funding means that the club can finally lay their nomadic existence to rest and start work on building six pitches plus a brand new pavilion, complete with six changing rooms and a function room, which can host social events as well as coach education courses.
Stafford Town were formed over 30 years ago and the brand new facility will also be DDA compliant which means the club can concentrate on generating a local disabled football community for both adults and children.
The club received their funding cheques from local MP, David Kidney and Football Foundation chairman, Lord Pendry and Stafford Town chairman, Gordon Evans, commented: “We’ve been working with the Stafford Borough Council, Staffordshire FA and both the Football Foundation and Sport England in pulling together a proposal for these new facilities.
“Thanks to the fantastic help of all of these people, plus financial help from The Staffordshire Environmental Fund, we managed to get the proposal through local authority planning in August before sending the total package off to the Football Foundation for ratification.”
Lord Pendry added: “I am delighted that a great club like Stafford Town FC will now be able to play a vital role in developing the grass roots game in their area.
“The CCDP funding partnership between Sport England and The Football Foundation is strengthening the bond between local clubs and the communities they serve.”
Stafford Borough Council’s Jim Arnold paid tribute to Gordon Evans and his army of volunteers at the club: “The project was never going to be plain sailing but Gordon and his team are so committed and dedicated that we should never have doubted the outcome.
“This is a welcome shot in the arm for the development of community sporting facilities in the Borough and in particular for football,” said the Council’s Head of Leisure.
“A facility of this standard is long overdue and I am looking forward to seeing the dream becoming an active reality in the near future.”
