Supporting grassroots football - Ecclesall Rangers under threat

[DeeJayOne]

Sad news from the Ecclesall Rangers camp:

 

We have recently been informed, by Sheffield City Council, that the senior pitches, at Bannerdale, will not be fenced. 

Whoever came to this decision appears to know nothing about the history of the site. I think that you and I have the right to know who made this decision and precisely why and how this partisan conclusion was reached.

 

What I do know is that this decision will have a massive impact on the hundreds of children and parents of Ecclesall Rangers.

 

For the past twenty years we have fought to have a home site for our Club and, more importantly, for it to be a safe and clean environment for our young members. The plan now is that the site remains open for all to use. 

 

The problem with this is that we face the same problems we have endured for so many years - casual use of the site and the myriad problems which this incurs e.g. large numbers of people using the pitches, leaving them in a very worn state, unsafe and unsuitable for play and littered with debris of all kinds. 

 

Previously, all four pitches suffered in this way - two junior and two senior plus the three small sided game pitches ; however, the junior pitches will now be fenced for school use and at the school’s discretion these pitches will be available for Sunday football games. 

 

I mention this because it has the obvious consequence of the two senior pitches and the three small sided game pitches, still accessible to us, being subject to over-use. I am sure that you need no reminding of the problems we faced in Seasons 15/16 and 16/17 - when so many games had to be cancelled due to the state of pitches, and particularly goal areas, damage caused by open public access - damage caused by vehicles. The sub-standard quality of our pitches left visiting Clubs, in Sheffield and District Junior League, to rate them as the worst they had played on.

 

I am the first to agree that we need free and open green spaces for public use and particularly for children - it is only natural and healthy that children have space to kick a ball - we all love that. However, the four hundred children in our Club prove that we also need dedicated space for grassroots football and it has to be fenced. Children deserve the danger free pitches which secure fencing provides and yet we will be asked to pay, every season, for a site that is unfenced and poorly maintained by the Council. 
Many of you will know that I have fought long and hard, attending meeting after meeting, to find our Club a permanent home - with just the basic toilet and changing facilities our players and visiting players deserve and need. 

 

Over the past few months I really began to feel, that at last, after twenty years, our time had come to have the site we had worked so hard for. To be told that it is not to be feels like a betrayal - and it’s you, the volunteer people who make the Club what it is and the youngsters, the very reasons for its existence, who I am thinking about here. You should not have to be wondering where you are playing and what state the pitch will be in when you arrive.

 

Astonishingly,I am informed, the tennis courts, left unkempt and abandoned for twenty years, are to be turned over to cricket nets. Nothing wrong with cricket, I hear you say but these courts would have made an excellent 60 yds. X 40 yds. all weather pitch for the small-sided game, with all manner of advantages that would bring.

 

Future plans for the site include a running track, long jump and sand-pit, a cricket square and practise nets and all these on the senior pitch site. If the school wanted a rugby pitch where would that go ?

 

I, along with many other people, have worked so hard to secure a ground for Ecclesall Rangers only to be let down by Sheffield City Council and those in authority - who have strung us along, knowing that they were wasting our time, with broken promises. Who are we to believe ? 
It’s impossible to express the sadness I feel in knowing that our Club, Ecclesall Rangers, no longer has a future at Bannerdale.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Martin Windle, BEM Chairman of Ecclesall Rangers.

[RUMBELOWS91]

On 09/04/2018 at 16:34, Orlando_Trustful said:

Grass roots in England is the absolute pits. Scandalous it's allowed to be ran like this when you've got mercenaries earning in a day what clubs like these could probably use in a year. 

All Premier League players should be 'taxed' 1% of their wage - that should go straight to grass roots facilities.

 

If we guess the average PL player in just the 25 man squads earns £50k a week that equates to £12.5m a year straight into grass roots football and that's coming from just 500 players who wouldn't even feel the pinch.

Edited May 23, 2018 by RUMBELOWS91