A TEAM tasked with finding a replacement football ground for Newbury has a six-week deadline to find a new pitch.

Surfacing Standards are the sports pitch consultants appointed by West Berkshire Council to look at potential new places for community football.

The council closed the football ground at Faraday Road, Newbury, in June 2018. The area is a key part of a huge, long-delayed, regeneration project on the London Road Industrial Estate.

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By the end of March, the consultants should have finished looking at potential replacements and how feasible they are for a new football stadium.

Councillor Rick Jones (Con, Tilehurst & Purley), lead for public health and community wellbeing, said: “We are in a hurry, so the target to finish is March 31.

“The brief [for the consultants] is to evaluate the pros and cons of developing a step-six community ground, with flood lights, car parking, and facilities.”

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He was answering questions from the public at a meeting of the council executive on February 13.

Paul Morgan, chair of Newbury Community Football Group, asked: “How long do you think would be reasonable to wait for Surfacing Standards to come up with an alternative venue? Would it be six months, 12 months, 18 months?”

Cllr Jones explained the council will have go through “a number of stages”. After finding viable sites by the end of March, “we will then work with the users and the surrounding residents of those locations, to work out how to do the project”. 

He added: “I can’t at this stage anticipate how long that will take. But we are in a hurry and we want to do it as fast as we possibly can.”

But opposition councillors later criticised the initial closure of the football ground, and suggested the Faraday Road location be reopened. 

Cllr Adrian Abbs (Lib Dem, Wash Common) said: “I just can’t understand why you can’t just say, ‘the council made a mistake, we shouldn’t have closed it, let’s bring it back again’, and then look for more sites. 

“What is the problem of just saying you made a mistake?”

Cllr Jones replied: “I have to work to a brief that says Faraday Road isn’t available. I’m trying to do the best I can.”

After the meeting, Mr Morgan said it would have to be several years before a new football ground would open, meaning the town could be without a football ground for seven years. 

He said: “They’re dogmatic and spiteful and they don’t want a football facility. They haven’t got an identified site, and they haven’t got a plan for when it will be delivered.”