New Football Pitches

Football clubs in Oakham are one step closer to a new ground, after Rutland County Council set the ball rolling with ambitious plans to develop new facilities.

Councillors agreed (Cabinet 5 July 2011) to start a piece of work that will find out if high-quality football pitches are possible on various pieces of land in and around Oakham.

The preferred site for new pitches is council owned land next to the new Rutland County College site in Barleythorpe. 

Councillor Gene Plews (Conservative) - pictured right - Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Sport, said: “The council will work quickly to carry out this piece of work to determine whether the land at Barleythorpe is suitable for football pitches.  We think it is, and it seems the football clubs of Oakham think it is, but it’s important to get the view of the experts who will assess the suitability of the land and its characteristics”.

Councillor Plews added, “The council is extremely keen to make sure that we provide football pitches and facilities of the best possible standard.  We’ll be looking at everything associated with a football club making sure that the facilities are in place to enable our local clubs to move up the league ladder”.

The council has already carried out extensive consultation with representatives of all of the community senior football teams in the Oakham area, supporting their recent merger to a single club, Oakham United.

It is hoped that the report into the suitability of the land adjacent to the new Rutland County Council site will be completed within 3 months.

If the report determines that the site is suitable, then the next steps would be to look at funding and any necessary planning permissions required.

Progress will be continually updated via the Rutland County Council website at http://www.rutland.gov.uk/