Wixams is “desperately in need” of new sporting facilities, but Bedford Borough Council has not been in touch with a club willing to manage them, a football club chairman has claimed.
Wednesday’s Wixams Joint Development Control Committee (23 October) was held to vote on two proposals to amend the facilities supplied by developers through a Section 106 agreement.
These outline measures a developer must take to reduce the impact of a development on the community. The Committee heard that Wixams Wanderers has 448 players with 24 teams, one 3G pitch and one grass pitch.
“We are desperately in need of new facilities and a new area to keep the club growing,” club chairman Ben Henry said.
“We just need a manned area where we can keep an eye on the children and the facilities, whether it be cricket, whether it be football, whether it be skate parks,
“Wixams Wanderers has told Debbie [Quinn, planning officer at Central Bedfordshire Council] before, Paul Pace [chief officer – environment at Bedford Borough Council] before, they will manage the facilities.
“Yet nobody has engaged with Wixams Wanderers about either of these directly from Bedford Borough Council,” he said.
“Debbie contacted the club secretary – didn’t contact me. Wixams Wanderers spend approximately 25 to 35 grand a year with Bedford Borough Council and I got no message,” he said.
Mr Henry said the club will man the facilities during opening hours, and any income would go back into maintaining the sites.
“I just want to point out that we are here, we are willing to take up any facilities,” he said.
“It doesn’t have to be football, I will oversee it, I will get the booking systems in place. Whether it’s squash courts, tennis courts, cricket, rugby, we will do that and I will get it back into the community.”
Gemma Davies, a planning officer at Bedford Borough Council, said officers were conscious that modifications should be agreed first.
“Then once we’ve come to a point where we have agreed on the quantitative facilities then [officers] would be happy to engage with the Wixams Wanderers in regards to taking on management of the facilities,” she said.
Mr Henry said: “So what you’re saying is, it’ll all go through and then you’ll say to us ‘will you manage that for us now?’.
“Rather than discuss what we needed as a club, or what age groups are coming through, is that what was agreed,” he asked.
“I’d moved up here from Luton for a better place, that’s a bit of a struggle at the minute. And the way everything’s going it’s becoming Luton.
“I’ll just think that we’ve got to tweak these plans a little bit. With the better facilities we can get, the more we will deliver for the children of Wixams for years to come,” he said.
Both proposals to amend the Section 106 agreement were rejected by the Committee.
The Wixams Joint Development Control Committee is made of councillors from both Bedford Borough and Central Bedfordshire Councils.
by John Guinn
Local Democracy Reporter
