March Estover group: 'We do not deserve social media abuse'

Statement from March Town FC Estover (CIC) regarding the fencing at Estover:

At the beginning of 2020 March Town United Football Club (MTUFC) were approached by March Town Council (MTC) to submit a proposal to run the Estover site.

The club decided to put a presentation to the council outlining that if we were to run the site these would be the main objectives.

1. To set up a Community Interest Company (CIC) to run the site financially independent from MTUFC. All profits would be reinvested into Estover and upkeep and future projects would be paid for wholly by the CIC;

2. To improve the football pitches;

3. To make them a safe and secure place for young people to play sport;

4. To encourage other sporting and community groups to use the facility.

We took over the site in March 2020 and committed to doing works such as fencing in line with the planning application of 2017. We applied for and received funding to help us do this.

The fencing was seen as essential to help make this a safe and secure place to fulfil the points above.

During the summer the CIC removed a large amount of dog waste from the site, broken, smashed alcohol bottles, nitrous oxide capsules, and general other waste. It was not a pleasant task.

We realise that most dog walkers clear their dog waste up but unfortunately that is not always the case and there is nothing worse than your child falling into this waste.

The fencing put up by the CIC is actually slightly different from originally stated to give dog walkers more walking space alongside Estover Road.

There is nearly four acres of land for dog walkers at Estover and we intend to sign-up-to the Green Dog Walkers Association, and to provide more waste bins.

We are also extending and improving the car park to take cars off the road at busy times and installing additional lights to improve safety and security.

There will be a cafe in the main pavilion serving light refreshments and snacks and a patio area for people to sit and enjoy this facility, weather permitting.

We are also installing a footpath to the Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) to enable everyone to use this facility.

Currently we have football, tennis, yoga, tai chi, goal ball and fitness classes at the site. All users of the site (and this includes MTUFC) pay for its use. Our aim is to continually improve the facilities at the site and encourage more users.

The CIC comprises of four people who are all trying to do their best for the whole of the community of March and surrounding villages. We are all volunteers. We do not deserve the abuse aimed at us by some people on social media.

Our long-term aim is to get a much needed 3G football pitch at the site and make it a community hub for all sports.

Hopefully this will lead to both full-time and part-time jobs for local people.

It is our view that Estover has been neglected for some time so we decided to do something about this and provide a variety of opportunities for local people.

We are at the early stages of this and I know we won’t get everything right first time but we will do our best for the community.

Gerry Roe

On behalf of March Town FC Estover CIC