Local Plan 2011-2031 Proposed Submission Draft

Regarding the lack of football facilities in Baldock.

My wife and I moved to Baldock with our two children three and a half years ago and, very quickly, began the process of integrating ourselves into the local community. Having two young children obviously helped, but we were, mainly, meeting parents of the children at my son's school.

My son, then 5 years old, joined Football's Future at the Arena but, being an Academy rather than a club, developed no wider a circle of friends - and nor did we.

The following year, through a contact at his school, we were encouraged to join Baldock Youth Football Club. This has turned out to be the most satisfying and successful avenue for the whole family to make new friends and acquaintances and integrate into the community as a whole. My son has now, regularly, plays with boys from all of the Baldock schools (and some of the surrounding villages) and my wife, daughter and myself have made friendships with parents and children we never otherwise would have met.
Over the last three football seasons, our social options have grown way beyond any other place we have lived. The children are being invited to a wide variety of birthday parties, we are being invited out for social evenings, we all share information about many leisure and social activities of which we would otherwise be ignorant, we are helping each other with the multifarious problems that arise in day-to-day living ... the list goes on and on.

Baldock Youth Football Club has become, to us, more than just a football club, it has become the glue within our section of the local community. The sense of camaraderie amongst both children and parents has grown beyond our wildest imaginings; and all of this is just for ONE age group of children, growing up together.
Multiply this by each yearly age group, and the network and communal reach which this club has engendered is incalculable.

So, on a social level ... wonderful! Now for the negative bit !!

During this period I have been struck by the high quality facilities my son's team has been visiting in the local area. Villages, with far fewer people than Baldock, have facilities that we can only dream of.
Buntingford, Morden, Shefford, Stotfold, Ashwell to name but a few - villages with populations varying from 1,000-6,000 - all smaller than Baldock - have superior facilities. We are, routinely, offered hot drinks, hot snacks and, especially in the depths of winter, warm rooms in which to retreat, whereas I have often been embarrassed by not being able to offer even the basic toilet facilities to the visiting teams and their supporters (parents, grandparents, siblings etc.). This is particularly embarrassing when the opposing teams have young girls playing for them. We have had to send them to Tesco's! Not the trip you would have expected to make had you just travelled from Hatfield or Saffron Walden!

With the new development, the population of Baldock is due to double in size from around 10,250 (est.2011) to at least 18,000. Is Baldock still to be the poor relation in terms of its population's accessibility to a footballing Community Centre? And it WILL be a Community Centre!

I am told that, currently, over 300 children between the ages of 5 and 17 play football for Baldock Youth.
One would, therefore, assume that doubling the size of the town would double the number of boys and girls wanting to play. Where, then, would these children go? Already we have trouble finding pitches for the current crop of children. Where, also, would the new, and existing, Baldock residents meet each other?
Baldock is no longer a sleepy little market town. It is being pushed further from its history by the new development. It NEEDS new community facilities for both young and old alike. Football reaches all levels of society and forms a lifelong bond for those involved.

The residents are, therefore, not just asking for a patch of ground on which we can paint a few white lines so our kids can kick a ball around on a Saturday or a Sunday; of course, we need a variety of pitches to service the differing age groups and the various levels of expertise acquired by our teams, that is a given,
but we are, also, asking for a social meeting place for all the residents of Baldock, available any time of the year, for a variety of sports, and for a community club where our children - and their parents - can play, exercise and relax in safety with their friends.

With the development of the new extension to Baldock Town, we have the perfect opportunity to build a custom-made centre capable of facilitating all those leisure activities mentioned and, at the same time, ease the, otherwise, untenable pressure that would be placed on the current facilities available within the environs of the town.

In the common parlance "it is a no-brainer!" So, please, take this "once-in-a-generation" opportunity to make Baldock a 21st Century town in which we can all be proud to live, work AND play.