Locations for a new all-weather sports pitch - suggestions sought

Kingsbridge Sports Forum is asking local residents for suggestions for locations for a future all-weather sports pitch. 

Kingsbridge Sports Forum is an informal group of five sports clubs and other organisations that support sport in Kingsbridge.

The forum is looking for possible locations for an up-to-date all-weather pitch, which will be made possible through Section 106 funding from local housing developments, through South Hams District Council and Kingsbridge Town Council. 

An example of an all-weather sports pitch in Herefordshire 

Kingsbridge Sports Forum is an informal annual meeting of Kingsbridge Rugby Football Club, KM United, Kingsbridge Cricket Club, Kingsbridge Community Tennis Club and Kingsbridge and Salcombe Hockey Club, Kingsbridge Community College and SHDC facilitated by Kingsbridge Town Council at Quay House.

The Town Council has an Open Space, Sports and Recreation Plan that explains what local priorities are. This is reviewed on an annual basis.

South Hams District Council helps coordinate and support sports, leisure and recreation in and around Kingsbridge. In some instances such as Embankment Park and Kingsbridge Leisure Centre, they are a key stakeholder. 

However, Kingsbridge Rugby Football Club, KM United, Kingsbridge Cricket Club, Kingsbridge Community Tennis Club and Kingsbridge and Salcombe Hockey Club are completely separate organisations in their own right. All of these are successful sports clubs that rely on pitches and courts to play.

South Hams District Council receives Section 106 monies from developers through the planning process, when new housing developments are built. Currently there are monies coming forward from the Applegate Park development at Belle Hill and soon from the K5 West Alvington Hill development.

SHDC have a Playing Pitch Strategy for the whole district and as part of these processes, Kingsbridge town has been identified as lacking a viable and up-to-date all-weather pitch, in particular in the Playing Pitch Strategy. 

The Sports Forum has been looking at ways of using the limited amount of SHDC money to seed-fund a bigger amount of money from bodies such as the Football Foundation to build a new all weather pitch in the town.

Richard Boyt, chair of the Kingsbridge Sports Forum, explained: "The Sports Forum members would like to hear where Kingsbridge and surrounding area residents think an all weather pitch might be located.

"An all weather pitch is likely to be prioritised for football, but would also host local rugby training and maybe rugby and football matches whenever possible.

"Kingsbridge Rugby Club and Kingsbridge Community College are constrained for land so are not available options for a new all weather pitch. KM United’s use of Malborough Playing Fields is long-established, but is again constrained by land and by being very remote from Kingsbridge, meaning it relies
on car journeys and the pitch is overused and out of action for most of the winter.

"The Sports Forum would like to consider relatively flat locations in and around Kingsbridge, which are of course, hard to come by. We hope local
people have viable ideas for where the future of sports pitches in the town might be." 

All comments or suggestions of locations can be sent to: Kingsbridge Town Council via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.