Statement on Burgess Hill Town's ground grounding by general manager John Rattle

Here is a statement from the club’s general manager John Rattle as to what adjustment and improvements are needed for the Green Elephants’ Stadium.

The statement reads: “Firstly, I would like to wish everyone a belated Happy New Year.

“This season I have kept you updated on the improvements we need to make to the facilities at the Green Elephants’ Stadium for us to play in Ryman Premier League next season. We were visited by the FA and Ryman League representatives on 17th Dec 2015. We still need to make a couple of minor adjustments to the turnstile area and upgrade the signage around the ground BUT the main requirement we have to meet is to provide a covered accommodation for 200 people in addition to the current Mansell McTaggart Stand that has a 307 people capacity.

“At the moment, we are waiting to hear from our landlords, Mid Sussex District Council, giving us permission to do the necessary works, as our lease provides that we cannot undertake these works without their consent. BHTFC Chairman, Kevin Newell has submitted our request with a brief outline of what is required and we have been told that we need to meet with the new Property and Asset Manager of the Council to advance this. Obviously we are very keen to do so, sooner rather than later, because the ‘clock is ticking ‘ for us to complete all improvements required by the FA by 31st March 2016.

“As I have said before, the ideal situation would be that MSDC agree to the new covered facility and also increase the current lease to a minimum of 10 years. We can then apply for funding via FA grant schemes available to clubs like ours who require to make ground improvements when they are promoted to a higher league. This process can take a minimum of 8 weeks. AGAIN we need to have dialogue with MSDC very soon!!!!

“BHTFC is a progressive football club who over the past 3-4 seasons have made giant strides both on and off the pitch. We work closely with the local community and Burgess Hill Town Council to ensure that we have minimum impact on residents on match days and will continue to do so. We are now providing the ‘best’ standard of non-league football in Mid Sussex – attracting 400 spectators to our home games. BHTFC promotes the town in a positive way through 6 teams (2 men’s, 2 women’s and 2 U18’s). We have Youth development squads at U15 and U16 and we want to work with all local Youth teams to produce the next ‘Greg Luer’. Burgess Hill is seen twice an hour 24 hours a day, on Sky Sports News – again promoting the town in a positive light. Kevin Newell and the BHTFC Committee feel a town the size of Burgess Hill deserves a football team that can compete in a National football league – we hope our landlords do too.”

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