Stanley Park Football Foundation Grant

Chippenham Town Council score with Football Foundation grant

Footballers in Chippenham were celebrating today following a £351,229 grant awarded by the Football Foundation. The funding boost will allow Chippenham Town Council to further enhance its Stanley Park Sports Ground with a new state of the art floodlit third generation (3G) Artificial Grass Pitch and sports pavilion.

The new synthetic pitch and building extension will cost £967,626 and has been made possible by the generous grant from the Football Foundation, in addition to donations from local football clubs (£4,800), a grant from the Landfill Communities Fund (£30,000) and funding from Chippenham Town Council.

Stanley Park Sports Ground is currently home to 72 football teams and over 93 different teams and organisations enjoy the facilities there. The new pitch and additional changing rooms will allow existing and new teams to play and train all year round in the luxury of first class facilities. Forecasts suggest that more than 1,700 people will use the new facilities every week.

Chippenham Town Council is organising a special 'sod-cutting' ceremony to mark the start of the project to take place at Stanley Park Sports Ground, London Road, Chippenham at 1pm on Monday 13th June 2011.

Funded by the Premier League, The FA, and the Government via Sport England, the Football Foundation is the nation's largest sports charity. Since it was launched in 2000, the Foundation has awarded nearly 8,000 grants worth more than £420m towards improving grassroots sport, which it has used to attract additional partnership funding of over £520m. Chippenham Town Council worked closely with Stephen Neale, County Development Manager at the Wiltshire County FA on preparing a funding bid to the Foundation.

Paul Thorogood, Chief Executive of the Football Foundation, said: "We warmly congratulate Chippenham Town Council, the Wiltshire County FA, the Landfill Communities Fund and everyone else involved with the project for their hard work and dedication in securing this award."

"This new project at Stanley Park Sports Ground in Chippenham is but one example of thousands across the country that the Football Foundation is supporting with money provided by our funding partners - the Premier League, The FA and Government.

"Since the Foundation was set up in 2000 it has worked closely with the Wiltshire FA to support 97 grass roots sports projects across the county with grants worth £4.5m. These grants have attracted further partnership funding of £6.5m into the area's grass roots."

Councillor Andrew Noblet, Leader of Chippenham Town Council, said: "This is fantastic news and we welcome the generous support from the Football Foundation. The grant allows the Town Council to further enhance the superb facilities at Stanley Park Sports Ground and is just rewards for the staff, particularly Peter Hussey, who has worked tirelessly to ensure the Council's vision for a state-of-the-art football facility with enhanced all-year-round facilities is achieved."

Stephen Neale, County Development Manager at Wiltshire County FA, said: "These improvements provide for a very high quality facility and build upon Stanley Park's proven track record in providing more opportunities to play football; a testament to the drive and energy of all partners involved to realise a scheme which will be a long term asset to the area."

Peter Hussey, Community Football Development Officer and Manager of Stanley Park Sports Ground, said: "Stanley Park is already a superb facility and one that the residents of Wiltshire can be proud of. The additional funding for the new pitch and pavilion extension will ensure that the Park remains a truly first class facility all year round."

For more information contact:


Back