IN TALKs: Bacup Borough FC manager Brent Peters wants a longer lease agreed by the council
AMBITIOUS proposals to redevelop a football ground for the community will only progress with support from the council, a club boss says.
Talks are still ongoing between Bacup Borough FC and Rossendale Council over the future of the club's historic Westview ground.
Club manager Brent Peters insists that without a long lease, he cannot attract the investment he needs to make Westview a focal point for the entire town.
He has spoken out after questions were raised at a Rossendale full council meeting over the length of time it was being taken to agree a lease on Westview.
Independent councillor Alan Neal questioned why the club was only being offered a 25-year lease - when most sports funding bodies required 75-year leases before offering grants. The meeting was told, by deputy council leader Bill Challinor, that after taking advice from officers, it was felt that a 25-year lease would safeguard "a valuable community facility" for the authority.
Mr Peters says that under the club's investment, the ground had been improved beyond recognition in recent years, with better security and improved fencing.
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He said: "We have got big development plans and want to make this club a focal point for the community.
"We want to take young people in Bacup, who have nothing to do, off the streets and offer them professional coaching. Most of this work, around 75 to 80 per cent can be grant-funded by various organisations.
"But what we all also need is to attract investors, whether it is the council, police or businesses, to make up the remaining part of that."
Investors would need more security than that offered by a 25-year lease and he has called upon the council to think again while negotiations are ongoing between the parties.
Mr Peters said that while on the field the club had not progressed this season, due to injuries, the long-term ambition was to move beyond their current North West Counties League status.
While the club is believed to own the stands and floodlights at Westview, it is the playing surface itself which is in the hands of the council.
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