A SMALL-TOWN football club is facing a tough off-field opponent in its bid to climb the ladder of progress.
Haltwhistle United wants to improve its facilities with changing rooms and a car park on the historic Old School Playing Field in the Tyne Valley town.
The club is aiming to meet FA standards and secretary Eric Taylor says: “Without this project, there would be no room to move forward.”
But neighbours opposed to the club’s plans are now bidding to impose Village Green status on the site under the 2006 Commons Act to stop the improvements before they start.
The Fairfield Park & Willia Road Neighbourhood Action Group says the field, which includes the football club’s pitch, is “the last open space” in Haltwhistle since the registered village green across town was earmarked for conversion to a play park.
Action Group Chairman Brendan Powell says the increased activity at an upgraded ground would cause unacceptable disturbance for households.
He said: “The town council saw fit to redevelop the registered green then wanted the football club to develop this field. This large public space is used by a lot of people and there is a strong and growing feeling about it.”
Haltwhistle Town Clerk David Ratcliff has written to Northumberland County Council to say: “We consider this application to be vexatious and an attempt by a small number of residents to invoke a wholly inappropriate piece of legislation to resolve a local issue.”
He added: “The space is already being used for the purposes which the legislation exists to support and protect. We are therefore at a loss to understand the motives of the application.
“By this development, the space will provide much-needed upgraded facilities for the playing of football, so long under-catered for in the town.”
