East Ayrshire councillors break with tradition to give football club pitch cash

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Football clubs who are moving from grass to artificial pitches could get financial support after Glenafton Athletic were given help to pay for pitch maintenance.Officers had recommended refusal of the application to Afton Renewable Energy Fund (REF) for £10,746 as that work is an annual running cost incurred by all clubs, and failed to meet criteria for the fund.But councillors on East Ayrshire Grants Committee decided to provide support as the club had provided information about its future plans for a 4G pitch to allow greater community use of their facilities.Glenafton had also told the council that they would be in a position to pay £3000 of the maintenance costs.The committee said that other clubs who come forward with a similar plan, and who are engaged with the council’s sports development team, could seek similar support.Glenafton have been encouraging more community use of their Loch Park facilities, but indicated that the level of use meant maintenance costs could put this community involvement at risk.The club had received £95k in REF funds last June to install floodlights and carry out pitch works.The report stated: “The floodlights were essential to support SFA accreditation to allow the park to be used more often by the wider community in the evenings and winter months.”The football club is now an active partner of the New Cumnock Sports Forum, established by the New Cumnock Development Trust to encourage local sports groups to work together to develop sporting activities within the village.The report continued: “There has been a significant move towards engaging and working in partnership with other local sports groups and community organisations and positive feedback was given on the development of Loch