Colchester United’s move to their new ground in time for last season put head groundsman, David Blacknall, under the local spotlight. He appears to have come through it with flying colours, as Charmian Robinson reports
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n the 2nd August 2009 the Weston Homes Community Stadium, the new home of
Colchester United Football Club (known locally as the U’s) and Colchester United Community Sports Trust, celebrated its first year anniversary.
It has been a year of mixed reaction to the new facilities with its share of teething problems and adjustments for the town and the fans. But, one year on, the general consensus is very positive and Paul Lambert Manager of Colchester United has expressed his approval at the performance of the new pitch.
Why did Colchester United move from Layer Road?
Colchester United were formed in 1937 and had been based at their old ground at Layer Road for over seventy years. The switch from Layer Road to the Weston Homes Community Stadium came after several decades of the club looking for a suitable site to build a new home. Throughout that time it was becoming more and more obvious that, despite the affection held by fans and the club for the existing site, Layer Road was clearly starting to show its age and, being surrounded by houses on either side, there was little opportunity for development or
expansion. The old ground had a capacity limited to just 6,300 by current safety restrictions, hospitality for just forty people and parking for only forty cars, reserved for players and officials only. The new stadium offered the prospect of so much more than that. The U’s had considered several
different sites before finally opting to move to their current home in the north of the town, and appointed Kirklees McAlpine as consultants for the new stadium on land at Cuckoo Farm.
Partnerships and Funding
The Weston Homes Community Stadium is a unique partnership as far as a sports stadium is concerned. The football club are tenants at the stadium, which is owned by Colchester Borough Council. The third partner is the Colchester United Community Sports Trust, which is a charity that works with the football club to deliver community coaching and education in the local area.
The stadium cost £14.2m to build, with additional costs for ‘fitting out’ the stadium with furniture, carpets, seats and so on.
This money was raised through a combination of:
• the sale of Layer Road • national government funding
• the Football Foundation • East of England Development Agency
• other funding bodies such as the Haven Gateway (for the development of this part of East Anglia)
The Stadium and the environment
The planning process involved a number of hurdles including environmental surveys to ensure that there were no rare species of animals on the land and that drainage was suitable. It was not until the summer of 2007 that construction finally began on the new stadium site.
When completed, the Council
secured additional funding with the promise that it would do all that it could to make the facility “green friendly” and to reduce the stadium’s carbon footprint. To achieve that, there have been a number of initiatives, including:
• a water tank in the East Stand, which collects rainwater to water the pitch. This water is used first before the stadium uses mains water supply
• motion sensitive lighting around the stadium. The lighting in most rooms will switch off after a certain amount of time to ensure lights are not left on overnight
• zoned heating so that only rooms that are being used are heated
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