Plans for Poolfoot Farm, Thornton
Fleetwood Town Football Club are set to create an exciting new community sports complex at Poolfoot Farm in Thornton which is owned by NPL Estates. The new facility is set to deliver a number of much needed quality grass pitches for use by local community sport teams, along with a state of the art full size all weather pitch, with associated changing rooms, classroom facilities, and other community facilities. The development will also create much needed new local jobs in the leisure sector.
The development will enable the football club to bring their first team training base back into Wyre from their current Fylde Rugby Club base in Ansdell It is also expected that Fleetwood Town Community Trust, the club’s own charitable trust, will move their operations from Highbury Stadium to the complex, allowing them to substantially grow their diverse work within the area. The charity provides a wide array of socially inclusive community, health, education and sport programmes spanning all age groups. The scheme will be financed by a combination of private investment and grant funding. Detailed plans are currently being developed and will be made available within the coming weeks.
Steve Curwood, Fleetwood Town FC Chief Executive, said. ‘This is an extremely exciting project, and one we have been working on for over a year now. It will provide a number of brand new grass football pitches, both full size and ‘mini soccer’, in a maintained and secure complex, enabling all those at grassroots level the opportunity to enjoy much better facilities than can be found currently in the area. A full size artificial pitch will also be created along with associated changing facilities for all users, along with other community facilities for all users.
The facility will also enable our charitable trust to move to the site. The charity has already enjoyed fabulous success in such a short space of time, predominantly with schools and younger people, and this will allow their great work to grow even further.
Our professional level players in both the First Team and Under 18 squad will also train at the venue during the week, allowing far more community engagement, such as school visits and open days, than is currently possible training at the other end of the Fylde coast in Lytham.
Having come so far in such a short space of time as a football club, this is will bring the football club even closer to the wider community. The club is so much more than just Saturday afternoons and takes its role in the local north Fylde community very seriously.
The club’s progression has meant that we have become fragmented over the past few years, with our Community Trust operating from various locations, our first team training in Lytham and our Youth Team being based at Blackpool Sixth Form College. We have been very keen to find the right location in Wyre to enable us to bring everything back together once again, and with the considerable help of NPL Estates this has now been made possible.
Over the coming weeks, alongside NPL Estates, we hope to detail our plans, and discuss them with local community partners, before submitting the detailed plans to Wyre Council in the autumn.
I can’t emphasise enough what an exciting venture this is, and along with new jobs this will bring into local area it will create a legacy for both the football club and the community of Wyre as a whole.’’
Ian Honeybill, NPL estates said “ We are delighted to be working alongside Fleetwood Town FC on this flagship development proposal. This project further demonstrates the commitment by NPL Estates towards the regeneration and improved community facilities within the locality and forms an integral part of the overall masterplan for the area. We have also made both provision for the future relocation of Thornton Cleveleys FC from their current site at Bourne Road and the existing football pitches on the Bourne Poacher fields within the proposals to enable a comprehensive sporting complex to be created. Areas of public open space have been provided for within the scheme with footpaths proposed to provide pedestrian linkage between the northern and southern end of the land. In addition allotment gardens have been included within the proposed scheme which it is envisage will be community run and help meet the large demand within the locality for such a facility.
As is the case on all projects it will be the company’s intention along with our partners to undertake a full public consultation exercise to hear the thoughts and receive the comments of local people on the scheme which I have every confidence will be received as this represents an unbelievable opportunity to create one of the best complexes of its type within the area.”