Busy behind the scenes at the Viridor
WITH the North West Counties League suspended and uncertainty remaining over whether or not the 2020/21 campaign will be concluded, Runcorn Town has provide an update for supporters on recent off the pitch progress. The club committee has been working hard to keep things ticking over during lockdown at the Viridor Community Stadium and making plans for taking the club forward both on and off the pitch.
● Finance & Funding
The club has been successful this season in obtaining funds in the form of three grants from the Football Foundation. In June money was made available as part of the “Pitch Preparation Fund”, in September the “Matchday Support Fund” and during January & February the “Winter Survival Fund” also allowed clubs to apply for additional funding.
The Pitch Preparation Fund allowed clubs to apply for a grant towards getting their playing surface ready for the new season. Town applied 60 tonnes of silica sports sand across the pitch, concentrating on the areas that had began to give them a problem, these being just outside the players’ entrance and just inside the area at the turnstile end of the ground. A verti-drain machine was used, to a depth of 12”, which aerates and de-compacts the soil.
They also fully weeded the pitch and applied fertiliser, which helps the grass to grow and recover healthily.
The Matchday Support Fund was designed to help with the safe return of football and spectators to grounds in the summer, in relation to the Covid guidelines and restrictions. With this funding the club was able to make repairs and modifications to the tea hut to allow serving of refreshments outside. Also, items including tape, protective screens, hand sanitizer and signs were purchased to enforce or encourage social distancing. Additional contactless payment terminals for all outlets were purchased to reduce the amount of cash handled at the ground.
In addition, the club started looking at getting a Wi-Fi connection at the ground to make it easier sending in paperwork to the league, uploading match reports etc, as online submission is the way forward to reduce wastage of paper, caring for the environment and to reduce contact. Also an online ticketing system was being looked into. Both of these have been on hold while the league season has been suspended, but will hopefully be implemented in the future.
As part of the Government’s Sport Winter Survival Package, the Football Winter Survival Package is a fund that aims to support clubs at Step 3 to 6 of the National League System that have been severely impacted by Covid-19 restrictions. The funding offered responds to each club’s financial needs to survive the winter and spring months, but isn’t intended to replace all lost revenue or profits over the last 12 months.
The objective is to ensure football clubs survive the winter period and minimise the long-term damage to participation. The investment has been provided by the Government, with the support of Sport England, and will be delivered through the Football Stadia Improvement Fund (FSIF).
This grant can be used for the following:
● Lease or mortgage payments
● Debt or loan repayments
● Utility costs (including phone and broadband)
● Insurance
● Essential pitch and stadium maintenance
● Non-playing staff who haven’t been furloughed ● COVID-19 compliance measures
● Other financial commitments that have already been made (e.g. catering)
The grant Town receive must be used by 31st March, with evidence of what the funds have been used for submitted by the end of May.
Town expressed their gratitude to the Football Foundation for their assistance in obtaining these grants.
● Club Structure
The club has been run for many years as an “Unincorporated Association”. This is the most common type of structure for an amateur club, largely because it is the easiest, cheapest and most informal way of forming a club. Unincorporated associations are a group of individuals (in Town’s case the club committee) who are bound together by the constitution of the club. Many clubs at Town’s level were formed in this way, but many are also now changing to become a Limited Company.
Town are in the process of changing from being a Unincorporated Association to being a Limited Company and a new company called “Runcorn Town Football Club Limited” has been set up. All of the necessary arrangements have been made and once approval has been received from the FA, the Cheshire County FA and North West Counties League, then the club will operate as a Limited company. The directors of the new company are the current 10 committee members, so nothing will change as far as the day to day running of the club is concerned.
“This change is necessary as we look to move the club forward and progress both on and off the pitch,” a statement on the club’s website read. “It takes away any individual liability from the club committee and also allows us to complete the legal process of securing a long term lease on the ground when it is ready to be agreed with the landlords.
“We are very grateful to the club Accountants Mitchell Charlesworth - for their assistance with this.”
● Ground Lease
Work has been progressing with securing a long term lease on the ground. The lease document has been drawn up and is ready to be signed by all parties once planning permissions has been received for the housing development on the former Pavilions site. The latest update on this is that the Health & Safety Executive have called in the plans for review after Halton Borough Council initially gave it the go ahead.
Once this process is completed the club will be able to start work on a new car park and entrance off Picow Farm Road. The long term lease also allows Town to apply for funding for projects for improvements to the ground and facilities for use by the club and possibly by the local community and businesses.
● Ground Maintenance
During the national lockdown there has been very little happening at the ground, other than pitch maintenance and some emergency repairs required as a result of the recent stormy weather. The club is hopeful that as restrictions are relaxed by the Government in the coming weeks they should be able to carry out some more small jobs.
They had a visit from Halton Borough Council’s Environment Health department to inspect the clubhouse kitchen and they suggested some improvements. This work should be carried out in the coming weeks and following a second visit to inspect the work, the club will be provided with an up to date food hygiene rating.
Work on the pitch is also planned in the near future to improve the drainage, although Town are awaiting a decision on the conclusion of the 2020/21 season before they can schedule this work. A couple of years ago some additional drainage was put into the
“Bowling Green” end of the pitch and this has much improved how well the pitch copes with the wet weather. Similar work also needs to be done in some troublesome areas in the other half of the pitch. If the season is declared null and void as expected, the club could make a start on this work as soon as possible.
● Macron Cup Final
One thing which may impact on the timing of this work is the hosting of the 2020 Macron Cup Final. Town were due to face 1874 Northwich in the delayed 2020 Final and the League are still committed to this game taking place. There is still a lot to be decided before this game can be rescheduled, but the club is hopeful that between the League, 1874 Northwich and themselves they can get this game played when is it safe to do so.
“We are aware that people have already purchased tickets for this game and would like to thank everyone for their patience during this unprecedented delay. We will keep you informed once any progress has been made with regard to rearranging this fixture.”