THE CAMROSE stadium is too small to meet Basingstoke Town Football Club's ambitions, the council leader has said.

In an exclusive interview with The Gazette, Cllr Ken Rhatigan said that the historic stadium is "difficult to redevelop... in a way that would give the ambition of a football club".

He added that before Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council can pledge to support the club in finding a new stadium, a "properly costed" plan needs to be presented to them.

The Conservative councillor was speaking just weeks after the new board of the football club relaunched a campaign to get the club back into the Camrose stadium.

Basingstoke Town FC was evicted by former owner Rafi Razzak in 2019, and last September, two planning applications were refused.

Club chairman Kevin White wrote to Mr Razzak, urging him to enter into discussions over allowing the club to return to the ground.

Now, Cllr Rhatigan has said that the club should set their long-term sights elsewhere, including at the potential future South Manydown development.

Highlighting that his council has been "supportive of sports throughout the borough" through a number of grants, he added: "The Camrose is a particularly difficult situation, mainly because it is not owned by us, and therefore people want value for what they have spent and there is an owner of it.

"We can’t force the owner to sell it, that’s the first thing, and secondly, is it in the right place in the borough for redevelopment? Let’s be honest about it, it’s bound on one side by a road, on the other side although there is scope there is housing, and is it big enough to provide what we want as an ambitious borough?

"Some of those questions are answerable. I can’t change the road into town so it is bound to be difficult to redevelop the Camrose in a way that would give the ambition of a football club, the training pitches, the sport pitches, the extras, because a football club has got to be more than the first team.

"The reality is that it has got to permeate down to youth, it has got to involve women’s football, it has got to engage with lots of parts of our society, whether that is through schools or smaller clubs, or people wanting to stay fit.

"I don’t believe, until we see something coming through from the club itself, we can endorse anything there, or say that we [will] put up council tax money without a worked up scheme. There is nothing at the moment.

"I think it is beholden upon the club, if they are ambitious, to tell us what their ambitions are for the Camrose, but if they can’t be met at the Camrose, there must be opportunities, as we build out places like South Manydown in the future, to have a stadium out there that would be all singing all dancing.

"With houses out there at the golf club, South Manydown [and] Beggarwood, would that not be the right place? Maybe we could get support from others to a re-based club out there with a re-based ground that would be much more than the Camrose could offer.

"We need to see the ambition from the football club first, before we could make any comment."

South Manydown is a concept currently being considered by the council. However, it is thought to be many years away and will not be built until after the North Manydown project, which received outline planning permission last year.

The council leader also said that the time scale for them moving away from their temporary home at Winklebury Sports Complex "are quite extended anyway", adding: "I am pretty sure that the club’s ambitions are bigger than just a re-entry to the Camrose.

"It would cost a serious amount of money in the first place. Who is going to raise that?

"There are not wealthy individuals going around buying football clubs at the moment, trust me, with a lack of spectators, a lack of commercial opportunities in football, and football at that level has been suspended altogether, so there is quite a long way to go to see football back in our borough at that level, but also to encourage spectators who are limited when they first went back to Winklebury.

"It is going to be a difficult journey for them. They need to think not just short term but more longer term too.

"Okay some of it may be a number of years away, but if we were to re-scope the Camrose, that would take at least five years anyway.

"The time scales for them moving away from Winklebury are quite extended anyway, and I would hope that they would suddenly come to their senses and say that actually maybe sports and leisure and wellbeing and tackle on health and obesity is something that we would like to do a lot more of.

"[That] would be very difficult in a constrained Camrose."

It came as BDBC's new chief executive, Russell O'Keefe, revealed that he was aware of the Camrose saga before taking up the top job last month.

Mr O'Keefe, speaking in his first public interview since taking up the job, told The Gazette he was "absolutely aware" of crises facing both Basingstoke Town FC and users of Planet Ice at the Leisure Park.

He added that the authority's upcoming review of its leisure needs assessment "is a really good opportunity for the club and us to work together about what the right football facilities are for the borough for the future".

"That is a process we want to work with them on," he continued.