ACTON Football Club has launched a bid to secure a lease on Wat’s Dyke Playing Fields to safeguard the future of its girls and youth section.
The club has asked Wrexham Council to grant it a lease on the site that will reduce pitch rental costs for the girls under 12s and under 15s team and the club’s Mini Kickers sessions.
Currently the U12s have a licence to use the playing fields off Ty Gwyn Lane but the ground is not currently suitable for when they step up to competitive football.
By securing a lease Acton FC hopes to reduce it’s rental cost and invest that money in marking out and maintaining the pitch to the required FAW standard.
It has also submitted an application to the planning department to bring a second shipping container onto the site to securely store club equipment.
According to the application by the club: “As the U12s are in a non-competitive league, we have been able to use this facility (Wat’s Dyke Playing Field) in its current state.
“Our U15 girls’ team have been renting various pitches around the area to be able to have a team in a competitive league. This has had a massive strain financially on the club and with limited funding available without a home pitch we will struggle to maintain this in the years to come.”
Crucially, the lease request specifically states that the playing field will remain open to the public for leisure and recreation – local residents will not lose access to the fields.
Other potential benefits – according to the application – would be improved community engagement, clear walkways around the area to encourage the use of the field for walking and exercise and prevent development, shared use with the four local schools, a safe area for children to play and help reduce vandalism and anti-social behaviour and reducing the cost of maintenance to the Wrexham County Borough Council.
“The area will remain to be accessible to local residents to use,” said the club. “The pitch and surrounding areas will be maintained to the highest possible standards achievable and safety will never be compromised.”
