Well it’s Day 4 of the building of the new 3G pitch at the Horsfall Stadium and we are all very excited. Unfortunately the great British weather slowed progress today.
Building work started on Monday and anyone who has seen the pictures on our website will see that good progress has been made already. We hope the surface will be ready by September 1 for community use, friendlies and matches for Bradford (Park Avenue) FC, and for Rugby clubs and other community uses. You’ll have seen our hopes for West Bowling ARLFC to relocate here, and all other rugby union and rugby league clubs are welcome to book and speak with us too – just call us on the contact emails below. By the time the pitch is ready, we hope also to have agreed some improvements to the Athletics facilities which will be built by December latest.
The site is now a construction site with all associated Health and Safety requirements, so please do not try to come into the Stadium area or interrupt workers. If you wish to view progress or take pictures, this can easily be done from Park Road which sits on high ground overlooking the whole Stadium.
The work is now possible because late last Friday 12 June, Bradford Council completed a 35-year lease with Bradford (Park Avenue) AFC CIC, and with a Licence to do these works.
There are now two major ‘sides’ to the ongoing football and wider community and stadium projects. The Stadium and Community side is run by Mark Leadbeater, the Stadium Operations Manager. Mark can be contacted at mleadbeater@live.com. The Stadium and Community side is expected shortly to be governed under a Management Agreement from BPA FC as Leaseholder, and the new Horsfall Community Stadium CIC (HCS) will manage and operate the Stadium facilities on behalf of BPAFC as the Leaseholder. HCS is a subsidiary of The Horsfall Community Trust which is Chaired by Robert Clunas.
The football club side is governed by its Directors. These are Gareth Roberts, John Dean and (subject to final ratification) David Little, who has already been Company Secretary for a couple of years. The football operations are led on the Directors’ behalf by Martin Knight, the BPA Director of Football Operations. Martin can be contacted at m.a.knight@hotmail.com.
So please direct any Stadium or Community matters to Mark, and any football-specific matters to Martin.
Our Press Release of Friday 12 June celebrates the long-awaited completion of the Lease and confirms that we are committed to the building of the pitch, and of the new Security Fence that will go around the stadium area. Gareth is putting in hundreds of thousands of pounds at present to help build a sustainable financial future for Bradford Park Avenue (the football Club) and the Horsfall community project more widely. The 3G pitch is of course an obvious example of how the income and cost balance now shifts considerably in our favour. We are also grateful for the support of the Football Stadia Improvement Fund, and we hope more partners will be on board for further developments.
We look forward to serving the Bradford and Calderdale area well over the coming years and for football, rugby, athletics and many other activities to thrive here and throughout our local community. As ever, it’s “Up the Avenue!”.
We will update you again before the end of June.