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Chase Lodge Playing Fields |
A ground to grow soccer talent
Charity’s bid to revitalise neglected council facilities to inspire young footballers
COULD Camden’s young footballers one day play on the same pitches as visiting
Premiership stars?
That is the vision of a new charity formed this week campaigning for the council to hand over a barely used recreation ground to become the centre of the borough’s football development.
The charity, Camden Community Football and Sports Association (CCFSA), wants to correct the chronic lack of full-sized pitches for the borough’s players, which they believe is holding back the talents of both Camden youth stars and Kentish Town Football Club, a rising semi-professional outfit now playing in the Spartan South Midlands league who are forced to play their home matches in Barnet.
“We want to give all the players hope that there is no limit to what they could achieve,” said CCFSA’s fundraiser, Margaret Park.
Formed from volunteers at Kentish Town FC and growing youth club Hampstead FC, the charity says the council have it in their power to help by agreeing to let them use its Chase Lodge Playing Fields, currently an uninspiring municipal recreation ground just over the border in Mill Hill.
They believe a generation of children have lost out because of the failure of successive councils to preserve playing fields, and there are now no full-sized pitches run by the council in the borough.
While Hampstead school pupils were once bused out to Chase Lodge for matches, the pitches are now used largely by Barnet residents, who rent them from Veolia Ltd, the environment company which manages the pitches on behalf of the council.
CCFSA chairwoman Diane Culligan said: “I’m not interested in the politics – there’s a piece of land that is being under-utilised and we’ve got hundreds of kids and a semi-professional football team that needs somewhere to play.
“What we want to do is utilise the space for the two clubs as well as for Camden residents, not only those who play, but those who come and watch their kids play.”
There are 600 youngsters registered at Hampstead FC and by 2011, the club hopes to have 1,000 players, and a ground that will inspire them – and the other Camden teams who will share it – to great things.
Diane added: “For the young ones it will increase the standard of football, playing alongside a semi-professional club. Kentish Town could be playing in the FA cup and get drawn against Manchester United. There is nowhere in Camden that could accommodate something like that. Imagine what that would mean.”
Chase Lodge currently boasts a run-down changing block with no separate facilities for male and female players, and no seating for fans. CCFSA hope to build a stand for Kentish Town and much-improved changing rooms
Former Mayor and Lib Dem councillor Jill Fraser, who sits on the CCFSA board, made a passionate appeal to Town Hall chiefs at a council meeting on Monday, and Labour’s Cllr Theo Blackwell has called CCFSA to his Resources Scrutiny Committee to back the bid.
“Chase Lodge is a council asset going back generations,” said Cllr Blackwell. “With space for football pitches in inner London at a premium, a bold council would secure the pitch for Camden children and Kentish Town Football Club.”
And it appears that the land could be transferred without loss to Camden residents. As former Inner London Education Authority land gifted to the borough under covenant, it cannot be built on and, if sold, the proceeds would have to shared between London boroughs, meaning that no council has the power to cash in on it in future.
CCFSA, and thousands of Camden youth footballers, are now looking to the council to make the next move. |
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