New Ground Update – Spring 2021
There has been a great deal of activity behind the scenes at Tankerton FC whilst the COVID Pandemic and Government and FA regulations have hit grassroots football hard over the course of the 20/21 season.
Our tenure at Seaview remains as tenuous as ever with several applications going in over the past 12 months regarding certificates of lawful development and the siting of caravans/mobile homes across all of their land which includes our football pitches.
We obviously appreciate everything Seaview and their parent company, Park Holidays, has done for us over the years and the ability (at the moment) to continue to use and manage the site as our home ground.
Given the continued pressure of the possibility that at some stage soon the site could be developed we have forged ahead with the work to find additional and alternative sites for the club.
As many of you will know the large field on the bends between Herne Bay and Whitstable opposite the Santa Circus site and next to St Augustines’ Industrial site is the new site we have been looking to develop with help from Canterbury City Council, Sport England and the Football Foundation over the past 5 to 6 years.
Progress has been slow because of the special nature of the site, the ecology and the need to maintain a green gap between Herne Bay and Whitstable. The club has worked with ecologists to ensure that we manage the habitat in accordance with the legislation and work it into a site that can sustain a football club alongside a number of other important neighbours such as Great Crested Newts, Lizards, Slow-Worms etc. We have in fact established one end of the land into a rather nice nature reserve with paths, hides, seating areas and a couple of ponds. We actually are looking for any volunteers locally that might like to help with the upkeep and management of the reserve.
Other important neighbours have also emerged none more so than ISG and GW Holdings. ISG is a large national company with a global reach who are global fit-out, technology and construction specialists who notably have been involved in the construction of Olympic Stadium, National Football Development Centres and even the new fit out of the changing rooms at Wembley stadium. Good fortune is that one of their factories and office block borders our site.
Both neighbours have stepped up to volunteer to help build the entrance road and carparking and ISG will provide temporary facilities to get pitches into use, and there are offers of help with the construction of the main clubhouse.
The provisional plans are to get the groundwork in place and site cleared to the boundaries and into the nature reserve of any reptiles across the main field during May and June (work has now begun on this) and begin work on the entrance way and carpark through the summer, according to the availability of our partners engineers and construction teams to be free to do this.
We have also planned to work with the City Council over this period to secure the final part of the 3 phased lease release and work with them to secure the funding required from the Football Foundation of around £250k to start work on the pitches.
We are also working with a fundraising consultant to help achieve our goals in this respect so that all grant funding bodies can see the effort the club is taking in this final step of getting this fantastic much need project over the line.
The club also has other irons in the fire with developments taking place within the local vicinity and the possibility of our involvement with further new pitch and facilities management. We will of course update everyone when we have more to share on this venture.
— The Trustees