High Court Challenge to West Berks Council

Hi all unfortunately a complaint was made to the Court about this fundraising activity and asked for any costs awarded to be increased by thousands of pounds so that Alan couldn't get any financial help - This is of course a pretty lousy thing for someone to do, but it does mean we will have to cancel this fund-raiser and return all monies raised.

Thanks to everyone who donated, we were inundated with people wanting to donate after we paused the fundraiser, but clearly, the "complainant" doesn't like the idea of a community coming together to help each other...

Hi, we are Newbury Community Football Group (NCFG), a registered Community Interest Company who have been campaigning for over 6 years to save our local Football Ground located in the heart of Newbury.

This Crowd Funding appeal is to contribute to the legal costs that have been and will be incurred by Alan Pearce, a local man singlehandedly challenging West Berkshire Council about the legality of their plans, plans that closed a football ground unnecessarily in 2018 after West Berkshire Council tried to "game" their own Planning Committees to enable them to build flats (now industrial units, but who knows what next) on the site of our local football ground that has been at the centre of Newbury since 1963 and who is engaged in a true David and Goliath battle. All funds raised will go directly to Alan Pearce to contribute towards his legal costs.

The landowner of Newbury's football ground is West Berkshire Council (WBC) and they evicted the senior, local men's team in June 2018 thereby unnecessarily preventing the whole community from using this much-loved and well-used public asset. Since then, WBC has systematically destroyed and demolished this public asset and all that remains now is an empty patch of unused grass. So why have WBC done this? No one really knows (including WBC).

The original “justification” was that it was needed as a cash cow to build expensive executive flats. Earlier this year, after spending well over a million pounds of taxpayer’s money on external consultants and lost legal battles, they announced that they now hope to put industrial units on the football pitch, yet no planning application has been submitted by them and no public consultation has taken place. What WBC has done (and will continue to do) is clearly wrong and is not in the best interests of the public, that’s why local campaign groups and residents have had to make a stand.

The facts are that this Council administration wants to concrete over the football ground. If they had followed good practice and kept the current football ground open and in use until a replacement facility of “equivalent or better quality” was fully operational, looked at all options, including keeping the ground where it is and involved the public in a transparent and consultative process then everyone would have been on board. Regrettably, this did not happen.

Before WBC closed the ground in 2018, they thought (acted) as landowners they could do whatever they wanted with the ground and had no obligation to provide a replacement facility. This misguided and arrogant attitude set the tone for a confrontational engagement.

To pave the way to eventually get planning permission (from themselves) to build on the protected Football Ground, WBC finally, after 4 years of pressure, accepted that they would have to build a replacement ground of "equal or better quality" and this is where they came unstuck. They proposed a “replacement facility” at the local Rugby Ground, but during their planning application (to themselves) realised it wasn't a suitable replacement football facility (it’s too small, it’s not scalable, it can't be used every week, rugby has priority for bookings (and free use), and it’s financially unsustainable as it’s dependant on an ongoing subsidy from WBC of over £300,000 per annum!)

Once WBC realised this fundamental planning glitch, instead of admitting this they instead tried to manipulate their own planning process by "pretending it wasn't a replacement football facility after all, it was just a new stand-alone 3G facility, despite the fact that the WBC Executive approved millions of pounds of expenditure for the new facility at the Rugby Club location as a replacement the very next day after the planning application was first approved!

Based on genuine ongoing concerns regarding the clear conflict of interest that exists at WBC as a landowner on one hand and as an impartial planning authority on the other hand, concerns over Council actions/policies that are clearly not in the public interest, local (and impacted) resident Alan Pearce launched a request to the High Court for permission to bring a Judicial Review against WBC.

In August 2022 the High Court Judge agreed that there were clear and sufficient grounds for a full Judicial Review, the main ground being, that WBC officers materially misled its own planning committee (members) to grant planning permission by requiring them to treat the application as a “stand-alone proposal” for development at Newbury Rugby Club with “no formal link” with the future of a football ground known as the Faraday Road Stadium (i.e., not as its replacement).

The full Judicial Review will be heard at the High Court in London on Thursday 19th January 2023

NCFG are 100% with Alan with respect to this legal challenge.

NCFG have an approved planning permission for a new clubhouse and 3G pitch at the current Faraday Road location. This proposal is by far the most cost effective, future-proofed and sustainable option, and will ensure that the Town’s main football ground remains in public ownership for future generations to enjoy. However, the current WBC administration, as landowner, will not allow NCFG to progress with this optimum and popular option.

The story has been covered a few times by local media, please see the links below. The 1st is the ground in full use with kids training, the 2nd is when the abandoned clubhouse caught fire a few years later and the 3rd about how England goalie David James was campaigning for Councils to stop destroying football grounds like Newbury's.

Click here to see the first South Today story and see the ground how it used to be

Click below for Clubhouse fire report and interviews with NCFG

Click below for David James news report and interviews NCFG