Runcorn Linnets FC: Ground at Halton Sports a cheaper but high quality alternative to Riverside College

Jun 25 2009 by Dave Bettley, Runcorn and Widnes Weekly News

RUNCORN Linnets officials have told how Halton Sports emerged as a cheaper but high-quality alternative homecoming site – after their proposed move to Riverside College proved too expensive.

As the recession bit, the club hit a prohibitive shortfall in the financial package for developing on land at the dockland campus, where £100,000 would have been required just to lay a pitch.

The Halton Sports option, which presented a good playing surface already in place, was thrown up when the club began exploring alternatives with Halton Borough Council and the Football Foundation.

Slowly, a £200,000 scheme was put together which should see Linnets in a new 1,600-capacity floodlit ground in Murdishaw with a 159-seater stand and covered standing area, for the start of 2010-11 season.

The club has been granted £100,000 from the borough council with a prospective £70,000 from the Football Foundation through the FA.

Linnets will invest £30,000 into the scheme and investigations are under way as to whether this amount can be match funded through Sport England.

Not part of the costings are the £40,000 from brewers Thwaites and £10,000 Local Area Forum money which are still included on the ground-fund totaliser but related to the Riverside site. The club is investigating if these sums are still available.

The Halton Sports initiative still requires planning permission. But it would see Linnets adapt an existing brick building into a clubhouse with changing rooms, boardroom/entertaining area, kitchen and function room with a 100-person capacity.

The building, formerly housing a gym, has been disused for three years. However, it is generally in a good state of repair, needing only minor renovations and alterations.

This first phase of development will give Linnets a UniBond League-standard ground with the club confident it can meet a Vodkat League grading deadline of March 31.

Another drawback of the Riverside project was its size – lack of space for expansion meaning elements of Football Foundation funding, through the FA, would not have been available.

At Halton Sports, there is scope to develop further. Services such as water and electricity are already on site.

Through funding by landfill agencies, the club will seek to also renovate an exisiting all-weather pitch at Murdishaw for training – and community use.

The full-sized 3G pitch – termed by the club as phase 1a of the scheme, suggesting it may not be that far behind – would be five times the size of that proposed at the college.

Discussions are continuing with the council over a lease, which needs to be at least 20 years for Football Foundation funding, rental and a project time line.

Chairman Derek Greenwood told a public meeting at the Waterloo Hotel on Tuesday: “The figures that we are talking about have not been finalised yet. But we are talking significantly lower than the lease value we agreed with the college.”

The fans-run club has yet to name its new home and while it may yet ballot Linnets Independent Supporters Trust members, officials haven’t ruled out ground-title sponsorship.

Runcorn Football Supporters Club AGM is at the Union Tavern on Wednesday, July 22. Applications for committee to secretary Susan Bell, 18 Coasdale Drive, Runcorn, WA7 2RJ by July 8.