A SUCCESSFUL grassroots football club in Basingstoke has found itself embroiled in a challenging situation due to a lack of playing pitches.

The Winklebury Wizards Football Club has grown significantly over the last two years, becoming one of the largest grassroots football clubs in Basingstoke.

However, the club's vice chair and manager of one of the teams Carl Saunders said his teams are now facing a series of setbacks due to a lack of suitable playing surfaces.

The pitch where they used to play has been dug up by contractors employed by Basron just days before the start of the new season.

Initially, the club had an agreement with the Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council to use the pitches adjacent to the Hampshire Football Association stadium in Winklebury.

Unfortunately, these pitches were later closed due to safety concerns.

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In June, Mr Saunders met with council representatives to discuss the possibility of utilising the pitches once again, but with improved safety measures in place.

However, just a week before the football season was set to commence, Mr Saunders was surprised to find that excavation work had begun at the site without any prior warning or consultation.

The pitches were dug by contractors to create a temporary construction access route for improvements to the Winklebury Stadium under the Camrose planning permission.

Wizards, which has more than 300 children, aged three to 16, and teams ranging from under-sevens to under-16s, are now also facing scheduling challenges due to the limited availability of pitches.

With multiple age groups and team sizes, securing suitable pitches for home fixtures has become a complex logistical puzzle for the club.

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Commenting on the concerns, the Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council challenged that grassroots football clubs in Basingstoke are struggling to find football pitches.

A council spokesperson said: “We monitor and track demand and pitch supply with Sport England and Hampshire Football Association to provide pitches. There are around 40 council pitches suitable for different ages and team sizes and matches in the borough. All clubs can book up to four weeks in advance.

“There are five pitches at the Winklebury playing fields marked out for combinations of different types of matches and age ranges already. There is also a full-sized 3G pitch operated by Hants FA and bookable, in addition to our pitches, when there are fixture clashes.

“No marked out pitch has been dug up.”

However, Mr Saunders said teams from Hatch Warren, Oakley and Rooksdown all book pitches at Winklebury due to unavailability, leaving no pitches to book for kids from the area.

A council spokesperson further said: “Last season, Winklebury Wizards asked the borough council if, in order to give extra capacity, we could put in two extra pitches on open space between the Winklebury stadium and the Winklebury playing fields. But these pitches had to be removed at the end of the season after the club raised safety issues about a heavily-used route that local people walk on across this land.

“We had agreed with the club to put one youth pitch back in that location for this season, avoiding the walking route, that was due to be marked up this month.  This pitch has not been marked up and is not in our booking system, so no matches could have been played on it so far this season.

“However, contractors on behalf of Basron have now started work on creating a temporary construction access route for improvements to the Winklebury Stadium under the Camrose planning permission. These improvements will include a clubhouse for Basingstoke Town Community Football Club and the upgrades will allow the club to play at a higher level.

“It is now not possible to safely fit in the pitch while this access road is in place for construction work.

 “We had no control over when this work was due to start. It is anticipated this work will be completed by March 2024.”