Future of club left in doubt

1:18am Friday 16th May 2008

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One of Bradford's leading amateur football clubs faces an uncertain future after local residents opposed development plans.

Eccleshill United, which has 100 young footballers among its 300 members, wants to sell a training pitch and demolish a clubhouse to create space for 70 homes.

Revenue from the sale would generate enough money to build a new clubhouse on the site in Kingsway, Wrose, but residents expressed concerns at a meeting to discuss the plans.

People living near the ground raised concerns about increased traffic accessing the new ground from Kingsway, and a proposed new stand overlooking their homes.

Questions were also raised about whether the area should be sold off for housing instead of being used for sports and recreation.

Councillor John Watmough said: "There was a lot of discussion and a lot of comments about the proposals and I would encourage people to write in with their comments or objections."

An application for outline planning permission has been submitted but no final plans have been submitted to the Shipley Area Planning Panel.

Club secretary Paul Jarvis said falling membership had left the club in need of the boost from selling the training pitch while keeping the main playing area.

He said: "Bills and rates are going up and membership is dropping, so this was something that we took on as a committee when most of us became involved about three or four years ago.

"We have been looking to see if selling the land would be feasible.

"There is a very real danger that, as a worst case scenario, the club would have to look to sell the whole of the site and we have got the local community involved for them to give us some idea about the best way we could use it."

He said any new clubhouse could be used as a community building, following the closure of Wrose Community Centre in December.

Mr Jarvis said: "The architect was at the meeting and was writing everything down. He said that people had some really good ideas, such as attracting new groups to use the building."

Parents of children who use the club supported the application.

The plans for outline permission will be discussed at a meeting in July before more detailed proposals are drawn up. Residents will be consulted again at that stage.