Last night, our reserves fixture at Ketley Bank was called off at the last minute after glass and flint rock were discovered on the pitch. This ground has been rented from the council for our reserve and development squads this season, as our DRM Aggregates Arena is already stretched to capacity. With both our men’s and women’s first teams facing a significantly higher number of fixtures this year — almost double for the men — our main stadium simply cannot accommodate every match.

For over a year, we have been in ongoing discussions with the council about the urgent need for additional facilities to support our rapidly expanding youth and women’s setups. We were made aware of the Newdale site and were told there would be an opportunity to tender and were asked to support the council’s application to the Football Foundation. We did so, but despite our growth and commitment to community football, we were never given the opportunity to tender. Instead, the site was leased to another club without any public process.

To add further insult, we were only offered a grand total of three hours per week if we wished to rent the Newdale site for training — split between a Friday night and a Monday evening at times wholly unsuitable for junior football. Our women’s side play on a Sunday and were offered an hour on a Monday night, this is despite the fact that the Newdale site was specifically funded to support the growth of women’s football, an area where Telford Town is expanding rapidly with three senior women’s sides(the most in the borough to our knowledge) and multiple junior girls’ teams in development.

We are now calling on the council to take our position seriously and provide active support. Telford Town FC currently operates over 30 teams across the club: four senior men’s sides, three senior women’s sides, a veterans side and twenty junior teams along with a walking football side and 2 disability sides — with further squads already in the pipeline. The council has agreed to meet with us again in September, but they have refused to discuss Newdale or explain their decision-making around site leasing.

We want to be clear — we are not asking for handouts. We are asking for fair access to facilities, or the chance to lease and manage a second site ourselves no matter its current condition we are prepared and willing to invest funds to ensure it is maintained properly and benefits the wider community, not just a select few.

We are proud of every single team and player that pulls on a Telford Town shirt and indeed those who represent the many other grassroots clubs in the Telford area and believe everybody is entitled to the opportunity to operate facilities being built using public funds not just those the council deems chosen.

Football is for everyone.