Local residents and regular visitors to Wallingford Sports Park have been invited to upcoming consultations regarding the development of the Sports Park with three key dates in July and via the wallingfordsportspark.co.uk website.
The Wallingford Sports Trust is intent is to provide sports and social facilities for access by the local population to a wide range of sports facilities catering for people of all abilities. The aim is to have a Sports Park that promotes the health and well-being of the local community, with intended plans to include new pitches, a new sport, improved access, parking and drainage.
The trust wants to build on the existing facilities and addressing the constraints of the site at Hithercroft. This includes providing playing surfaces that can be multi use and not weather dependent, given the ongoing climate issues.
This will mean higher utilisation and allowing for growth and consolidation of existing sports on the site and support for new opportunities, to include a new sport – Padel.
Key Drivers
- Capacity constraints on the existing all-weather pitch (AWP) limiting the ability of hockey to grow and other increased usage such as 5 a side football etc.
- The need for Wallingford and Crowmarsh Football Club to consolidate on one site rather than being spread across multiple sites in the town and the need to provide for other forms of football such as Vets and Women’s etc.
- The pressure on grass pitch areas particularly rugby and football for training and matches due to growth in the respective sports and the need for space, particularly in youth age groups
- The changing weather patterns and the growth in sport requiring more robust and weather resistant solutions at our site – finding solutions to the (increasing) flooding and drainage problems
- The need for better arrangements for parking, local access (walking and cycling) and safer, more sensible circulation within the site
- Our desire to widen recreational activities at the Sports Park to meet the diverse needs of our growing community (population increase in the catchment – not only in Wallingford but Benson, Crowmarsh, Cholsey, Berinsfield and other villages too)
When are the sessions?
The consultation sessions are from 09.00 on Saturday 6th July to 17.00 on Wednesday 17th July. During this period the consultation information will be available at www.wallingfordsportspark.co.uk
There will also be three public drop-in sessions in the newly opened ‘Pitchside Café’ in the Clubhouse on Hithercroft Road, OX10 9RB, at these times:
- Saturday 6th July (10.00 – 13.00) Note: The site will be busy with a sports event on this day
- Wednesday 10th (17.30 – 19.30)
- Monday 15th (17.30 – 19.30)
This community consultation offers an early opportunity to find out about, and discuss, our ideas to improve the sports facilities before we firm up our plans and, hopefully, submit a planning application in the Autumn.
Our ideas are at a formative stage, and we will have displays and Sports Park people on hand who will do their best to help you. We hope you can make one of the drop-in sessions but if you are unable to do so, do let us know what you think. There will be a feedback form on our website and at the drop-in sessions.
