Bridgend county council cabinet will meet this week to reconsider the decision to increase sport pitch hire prices by 500% from \u00a350 to \u00a3300. <\/p>\n\n\n
Cabinet members decided upon the new policy last\nmonth, as part of the \u00a336m saving budget the council needs to make in four\nyears. The plans have caused an outcry across the towns within in the county\nand fears of clubs closing linger. <\/p>\n\n\n
At a special scrutiny meeting last week, opposition council members decided that the proposed plans should be sent back to the cabinet for a review. <\/p>\n\n\n
Pencoed Rugby Football Club\u2019s chairman, Stephen Davies, described the proposed decision as \u201cdraconian\u201d saying it could see clubs across the county close purely because they could not afford the new pitch fees. <\/p>\n\n\n
He said: \u201cWe will obviously try and find the\nmoney but being brutally honest, it is impossible, we just cannot find that amount.\nDue to providing matches to various teams, the club has to hire three pitches\nper match. Therefore, the new prices will cost the club an extra \u00a330,000 per\nseason. It\u2019s just unsustainable\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n
The independent council member for Pencoed and Heol-Y-Cyw, Alex Williams, says sport clubs are the “social hearts of the community” and provide health and well-being to young children and adults alike. He said that in order to minimise the impact these proposals could have, the council must invest more resources into the existing policy- Community Asset Transfer (CAT), which allows clubs the opportunity to up-keep the pavilions and sports ground themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n
He said: \u201cI think the cabinet will continue\nwith the proposals but they should try and get more resources to get some of\nthe CAT [policies] across the line. Clubs are happy to take on the CAT process\nbut it seems there is such an inordinate length of time to get them over the\nline and unfortunately unless there is more human resources- I fear these\nproposals are going to see the light of day before some of these clubs can\nactually take over the facilities themselves\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n
But Stephen Davies said that Bridgend council\u2019s record with CAT policies has been \u201cappalling\u201d. His club\u2019s pavilion is only now being repaired after it was damaged in the storms 2 and a half years ago. <\/p>\n\n\n
He said: \u201cWe are actively looking at applying for the CAT policy for the field but with the history of it, I don\u2019t think it is going to be a swift and painless process unfortunately\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n
The final decision will be announced on\nWednesday 13 November at 2:30 pm. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bridgend county council cabinet will meet this week to reconsider the decision to increase sport pitch hire prices by 500% from \u00a350 to \u00a3300. Cabinet members decided upon the new policy last month, as part of the \u00a336m saving budget the council needs to make in four years. The plans have caused an outcry across the towns within in the county and fears of clubs closing linger. At a special scrutiny meeting last week, opposition council members decided that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":213,"featured_media":24018,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,6,18],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-23956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-news","category-slider-story"],"yoast_head":"\n