A FOOTBALL club in Cirencester has raised concerns over the lack of recreational space for sports in the town, as well as the upkeep of existing facilities.

The Beeches FC, currently in Division Two of the Cirencester and District League, based at the Kingshill Sports Complex, say more needs to be done to allow youngsters to stay active in the town.

Mick Ricketts, club secretary, said: “Cirencester is growing in population and we don’t have enough recreational areas.”

He said the club has moved to several new homes over the years to accommodate changes to recreational grounds, including St Michael’s Park, and has recently seen a large section of its current training area replaced with a skate park.

The match day pitch has only just been seeded in the last couple of weeks, according to Mick, with pre-season friendly fixtures already underway, meaning the team “cannot play at home”.

He told the Standard: “We have a good bunch of lads [at the football club] who love nothing more than to get together and have a kick about throughout the summer months.

“But sadly our sports complex’s grass is not kept short enough to play on, so the lads recently went to have a kick about at Preston playing field but the local residents only moaned instead of encouraging youngsters to use their facilities, that are underused.

“We used to have our lovely Abbey Grounds, [but] that is now a shadow of the condition it was in my day.

He said: “We have never been provided with a designated area since the training area was lost to the skate park, so the lads try to pick the best piece of ground to train.”

The Standard contacted the town council last week, to report the club’s concerns, and Mr Ricketts said since then the club’s training pitch has been cut, but is still in otherwise poor condition, with the flood lights overlooking the skate park making winter training ‘impossible’.

Andrew Tubb, Cirencester Town Council chief executive, said: “A more joined up approach to sport and recreation provision was acknowledged recently when we reviewed the Our Future Cirencester Community Plan.

“We subsequently invited a wide range of sports clubs and providers of local facilities to come together as a partnership from this a smaller core group has been established which will be meeting in September.

“We would encourage the Beeches FC to join with us to be a positive and proactive part of the solution.”

He went on to say that Cirencester is fortunate to have many local sports clubs and facilities but “we have learned that they are often oversubscribed.”

He explained: “a few of our local clubs have tried to expand their facilities but are having difficulty obtaining full funding or suitable land for development” and so the council established the Sports Development Partnership.

The partnership will “allow all local clubs, schools, landowners and local sports enthusiasts to join together to find solutions where resources can be shared to benefit everyone.”