Football club want to build a new stand
By John Geoghegan
HORLEY Town Football Club want to
build a 100-seat stand to make it ready for higher-league football.
The stand is planned for the west side of its ground, The
New Defence in
The club also want to build a new 100-person covered
standing area on the north side by the car park and four turnstiles.
Chairman Mario Renou, who took over from Graham McLaren in August, said: "This is a long-term solution for our requirements. We've already got in place the required facilities to go back into the Combined Premier.This is for the next stage up.
"We're hoping to get promotion to the Ryman League in
the next three to four years.
"We should have 200-plus seats and 150 standing in
total if it goes ahead. Last summer we were about 30 seats short, but over the
summer we added an extra 33 seats.2
The club has had problems in the past with Court Lodge
residents over the issue of floodlighting and licensing at the clubhouse, but
Mr Renou said they plan to put that behind them.
He said: "I don't think it's going to affect residents
in the surrounding area - most of the work being done is on the other side from
most of the houses.
"I don't think we will have that many more supporters
coming because it's to satisfy requirements rather than the amount of people we
are getting.
"We have to keep up with the times with the amount of
teams we run. We have 28 junior teams and three ladies' teams.
"We do make a good contribution to the community in
terms of sporting facilities and want to include them as much as possible.
"Recently, we've had an agreement with
"We're trying to move forward and expand our services
to the community over the next five years.
"Recently,because
of a legal dispute with the trustees, we haven't been able to concentrate on
that side of things as much. Now that's sorted out we can look ahead and move
forward."
The club plan to purchase a stand already used by the Welsh
Institute of Sport in
Local ward councillor and town mayor Mike Miller said:
"The club has to do it and I thing it's good for
both them and Horley.
"I expect there will be a lot of resistance from a
number of residents.
"I will always support sports and if they need to
progress, they need to.
"I don't want them to be pushed backwards. It's good
for the town to have a senior football club."
As head of the borough council planning committee, Mr Miller
said he did not want to pre-empt any decision by the committee.
The club have enjoyed a flying start to the season in the
Combined Counties League Division One and are second in the league with two
games in hand. The new stand will be on the west side of the ground nearest to
the River Mole.
The chairman of the Court Lodge Residents' Association, Mike
George, said: "I see nothing too contentious by placing the stand on the
west side of the ground near the River Mole and not near the houses.
"It's a good site to have it on the opposite side to
the clubhouse."
Residents have until October 2 to comment on the
application. The target date for the borough council to deal with it is
November 1.