Our project to develop a 'real' home for our club is gathering pace. The project team met in late January '08 to finalise the drawings and to ensure the application forms for planning had been completed correctly. On 4th February 2008, our plans were posted to Bradford Council planning department. The process can take up to eight weeks before we will know whether we have been successful in gaining planning permission on Iron Row.
Our plan is to build a stone fronted facility, offering 4 changing rooms including toilets, wash hand basins and showers. We will have 2 changing rooms for match officials, cleaners store, plant room, external toilets for spectators as well as a kitchen and club room. Externally we have submitted plans for a store, car park for 13 cars plus two disabled spaces, bin store and an external serving hatch from the kitchen.
Our plans also include substantial work to be undertaken on the pitches, to ensure good drainage and a level playing surface, which will promote better football and give the children a excellent surface to improve and develop their individual skills.
Our next 'milestone', once we have secured planning consent is to progress our funding initiatives and finalise the building costs.
Following further dialog with the planner and a number of objections (33) from local residents the committee is considering making a few changes to the initial plan. The local residents have raised concerns about three main issues.
- The size of the facility
- The potential noise from the facility after the hours of darkness / on an evening
- The potential for increased traffic down Iron Row
Based on these concerns the club is now reviewing its plans.
We will clarify why the facility has to be the size it is, which revolves around the specifications set by The FA due to the number of players within the club (over 300). We will also clarify the intended use of the facility, especially on an evening, however we must stress that we have no intentions of renting it out for parties / events etc and we will also review the car parking allocation to see whether we can reduce this to accommodate the disabled and emergency vehicles (reduction from 15 to 3).
The club is dedicated to working with the local community and residents to ensure that we meet the needs of everyone, whilst maintaining our requirements for the children and to attract funding.