Pilot Lights Going Out? Council Debates Football Club Relocation
A full meeting of Hastings Borough Council (HBC) – the first in two months – was due to debate last night (Thursday) a motion tabled by Conservative council leader Andy Patmore for reconsideration of the proposed relocation of Hastings United Football Club from its existing ground at Pilot Field to Tilekiln playing fields in Hollington.
As reported in our last issue, HBC owns the freehold of both venues, and Hastings council leader Paul Barnett, who heads the minority Labour administration, has been blocking the relocation. This is despite planning permissions having been approved, both for redevelopment of Pilot Field as an 86-unit housing estate and for the building of a new stadium and other football facilities at Tilekiln.
In response, the club’s owners Darren Burney and Peter Sherlock have threatened to move it out of the town altogether. They claim that ground maintenance problems at Pilot Field, in particular the parlous state of the main stand, make it financially unsustainable, and that their only practicable alternative recourse is to abandon it and share a ground and facilities with Eastbourne Borough FC for the foreseeable future.
This proposal was greeted with dismay and some anger at a meeting with supporters on 24 November. However, the threat was renewed in a fresh statement issued by Hastings United CEO Billy Wood on 9 December.
“No alternatives”
Wood confirmed that “to protect our Isthmian League status” (clubs in this league must demonstrate the capacity to seat at least 250 spectators in one or more stands at all home matches) United had signed a ground-sharing agreement with Eastbourne Borough to take effect in the 2023/24 season. He declared that the club would prefer “to remain at the Pilot Field in the short term and not have to move away from Hastings, but there are no alternatives available within the Hastings area, nor are there sufficient pitches to continue with our Academy programme.” Only the proposed move to Tilekiln would resolve these issues.
The club has, he disclosed, a contingency plan to erect two temporary stands at Pilot Field containing 500 seats between them to replace the main stand seating. These new stands could be in place for the 2023/24 season “subject to a planning consent being issued in a timely manner by the Local Authority to allow these works to be done during the close season” (a dig at previous delays in the HBC planning process).
However, the club could only meet the cost of installing the stands if “absorbed within the Tilekiln development” – they could in due course be relocated there, but current expenditure on them would be dependent on an assurance of the relocation proceeding.
Council meeting
Wood referred to a public petition backing the Tilekiln venture which had attracted 1,848 signatures in support. He then went on to point to the council meeting due to take place last night as a forum at which councillors could reverse Cllr Barnett’s stance before it was too late. He called upon the council “to agree on Thursday 15 December that Tilekiln can progress as originally agreed”.
Those maintaining opposition to the move to Tilekiln have pointed out that there has never been an agreement to approve it, whatever levels of enthusiasm have been expressed by individual councillors in early stages of discussion. They contend that the club jumped the gun in proceeding with their planning applications. However, it seems that Wood and/or the club’s owners have been priming councillors outside Cllr Barnett’s minority cabinet to argue their case this week.
Leader of the Conservative opposition, Cllr Andy Patmore, has tabled a motion for debate proposing “in the spirit of openness and transparency” that the council’s managing director (Jane Hartnell) prepare a report to cabinet “at the earliest opportunity” on whether the relocation scheme is “viable to recommend to Council”, and “to set out what alternative provision is available to allow Hastings United to remain in Hastings.”
If Green party councillors voted en bloc with their Conservative counterparts this week they could push Cllr Patmore’s (or similar) motion through, even if there were no Labour party dissenters to join them. The Green party were intending to meet themselves on Tuesday evening of this week (after HIP has gone to press) to decide what stance they should take in the debate. Party leader Julia Hilton was unwilling to make any prediction in advance of this meeting, but appeared personally supportive.
“I do agree that such an important decision about the future location of our local football club and all the related women’s and junior teams should be one made by full council and not at the whim of the Labour leader,” she said. “Therefore, I welcome the impulse to get all relevant information into the public domain, including what, if any, alternative options there are, so councillors can make an informed decision.”
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