Happy New Year from all at Kirkheaton Youth FC, and many thanks to all our parents, guardians, sponsors & especially our coaches for your continued support.

We are looking forward to finishing the 2021/22 season together with improvements to our facilities at Bankfield Lane. We started to push our fundraising several years ago with the aim of having a purpose-built pavilion on our field. During 2019 we started to work with the Football Association, and we were placed on their development path for funding as we were identified as a priority club. However, we were expected to raise further funding before they would commit to any financial support. Plans were approved for the project and we intended on 2020 being the year we raised the remaining funds required before the FA would provide the majority funding. Unfortunately, due to COVID we didn’t have the opportunity to continue fund raising - 2021 also got off to a slow start with spectators required to keep away from the pitches, this affected our income with our usual kitchen sales and raffles diminished. With the lease on the kitchen and changing rooms coming to an end in August we approached Elliott’s & asked 2 questions:
What price would it take to buy the kitchen unit?
Can we keep renting the kitchen and toilet cabin only until we assess our options?.
As the cabins were becoming tired and requiring investment, we expected a sensible sale price or reduction in the rent. Instead, they replied saying we couldn’t purchase, and if we were to continue renting, they were putting the cost up to £470 a month. They stated this was due to the high demand of these cabins, we therefore instructed them to remove the cabins rather than committing to another £5,000 on a single unit that we wouldn’t own.

We reviewed the pavilion project, considering increases in building & labour costs, delays on materials, funding requirements from the FA as mentioned earlier & decided we didn’t currently have time or funds to keep pursuing that option. It became clear that a pavilion, meeting FA requirements (to benefit from FA funding) was going to cost significantly more than the club could currently commit to and would take years rather than months to deliver. We have instead purchased a bespoke kitchen and toilet unit based on a container to match our initial needs. This will provide the club with good basic facilities that will leave some funds for improving the site. We are planning for work to start in April to include fencing and hedging to our boundary on Bankfield Lane, along with improved paved areas, planting, and also ensure the facilities are flood resistant.

The kitchen and toilet facility arrived on 29th December - it’s a modular design so we can add more elements if required in the future. We are completing the fit out and working on it being ready for games resuming this month. This helps keep the club self-sufficient with no rental costs, gives greater flexibility with storage and means that facilities are assets that can be adapted, modified or moved as required.

We are now working towards the next development for the Club with the possibility of a 4G Astro training area and 7v7 pitch in front of the cabins, this which would facilitate our winter training needs and help to save £1000’s each season on training costs which we currently pay to other venues. We are starting to look into the costs and grant opportunities for this project.

If anyone would like any further information on the club and its plans, facilities etc please speak to your Team Coach, who will be happy to pass on any queries they can’t answer to the Club and we will get back to you.

Thank you again for your continued support.