For 150 years Maidenhead United FC has been a key part of the fabric of the town. The success of its men’s and women’s adults teams, along with the significant growth of its grassroots football and wider community activities means that its existing York Road ground is no longer fit for purpose.

The disposal of the land at Braywick to Maidenhead United FC will deliver significant community benefit and will be advantageous to a range of stakeholders including the club & its supporters, Maidenhead Athletic Club and the Council and the local community.

Key advantages of the disposal include that it would:

• Enable the football club to retain a location close to the town centre at a location which is already the established sports hub for Maidenhead and benefits from good transport links and infrastructure.
• Secure the future of Maidenhead United FC and extend the economic benefit of the club to the town and the local business community.
• Enable the trustees of Maidenhead United’s existing York Road ground to invest all the proceeds from the sale of York Road into a new community sports stadium incorporating additional sports and wellbeing facilities.
• Deliver a community ownership structure of the new stadium and associated facilities which secures its long-term benefit for the local community and creates ring fenced income streams to ensure the ongoing maintenance and upgrade of facilities.
• Provide the Maidenhead United’s successful men’s and women’s football teams with stadium facilities which are commensurate with the requirements of the competitions they play in.
• Transform the safety, accessibility and overall quality of stadium facilities available for all spectators/supporters of Maidenhead United FC from the local community.
• Deliver much needed additional community sports facilities for the town at NO COST to the Council. This includes two astroturfs suitable for football and rugby and a covered sports court facility for futsal and wheelchair sports.
• Deliver a new floodlit athletics track and associated facilities, supported by England Athletics and Maidenhead Athletic Club, again at NO COST to the Council or MAC
• Enable the Council to demonstrate it is facilitating a tangible response to the known, and currently unmet, needs in Maidenhead for additional astroturf facilities (with all existing astroturfs in the town at capacity) as well as the need to replace the towns existing dilapidated athletics facilities.
• Enable the Council to realise external investment for the additional community sports facilities the town needs without the requirement for contributions from Council budgets. This is a key consideration given the Council’s current financial position and the lack of available funding for investment in community sports facilities across the borough.
• Support the health and wellbeing of the local community by increasing the opportunities available for local people of all ages and abilities to engage with sports, wellbeing and recreational activities.
• Ensure that Maidenhead United Women and Maidenhead United Futsal have a dedicated home in the town which stops them from having to train and play competitive home matches at various venues outside the borough.
• Provide facilities which will enable Maidenhead United to address the needs it cannot currently be meet because of the lack of facilities in the borough. This includes facilities required to provide for the unmet demand for women and girls football, junior football and men’s and women’s walking football. The club has significant waiting lists in these areas because it cannot access facilities to meet this demand.
• Provide a dedicated home for the Maidenhead United FC Community Trust including a centralised wellbeing hub, incorporating more services and offerings and enabling the more of the most disadvantaged within our community to be supported to improve their health and wellbeing.
• Provide a capital receipt for the Council as a direct result of the land being leased to the Club, providing vital income which can be reinvested to provide Council services or facilities.
• Allows the existing York Road site to be a ‘brownfield’ development providing hundreds of residential units in the town centre.
To sign the hard copy of the petition, please get in touch.
Shay Bottomley
Email: shay.bottomley@outlook.com
Mobile: +44 7454 723237

Started by: Shay Bottomley

This ePetition ran from 01/10/2023 to 21/11/2023 and has now finished.

2119 people signed this ePetition.