Although it perhaps appears things are not moving as quickly as we would have liked, I can assure all at the Club that a lot of effort has been put in behind the scenes to ensure progress is being made. As all of you are probably aware, there are two parts of our development plan; enclosing our Somerset County League pitch with fencing and erecting dressing rooms adjacent to the pitch. There have been recent developments on both fronts, which this week I have received clarification of. Taking each in turn;

Pitch Enclosure

As you know, following permission granted by our landlords (the Nailsea Town Council) in November 2004, we erected a 1.8 m high fence on two sides of the pitch to enclose it during the pre-season (the other two sides had natural boundaries). Following an adverse reaction by a small group of local residents, public access to both the land we lease and to a gateway inside our enclosed area caused the Town Council to reconsider its position in September.

However, I am delighted to report that following a number of meetings with the Town Council and the residents, the Town Council have decided that further 1.8 m high fencing can be erected along the southern hedgerow (adjoining Morgans Hill) from the current eastern fencing (behind the 'top' goal) to the hedgerow on the Western perimeter (at the Uplands end). The Town Council have also agreed that we can erect a wire fence along the Western perimeter should this prove necessary. This is great news since this work will ensure that our pitch is fully enclosed. As many of you will have read in the press, this has been a hard fought victory for the Club and a critical one to our future at the Grove.

We will also be landscaping the current fencing with plants shortly and your help will be needed with planting!

Dressing Rooms

Our planning appeal to the Planning Inspectorate, against the decision of the North Somerset Council to reject our planning application to erect dressing rooms adjacent to our pitch, has been submitted and is progressing. We feel we have very strong grounds of appeal and I have this week spoken to our Architect for gain a progress update. He has advised me that although things are progressing well, there is little likelihood of a decision being made this side of Christmas but definitely early in the New Year. We are also looking at funding proposals for this project having received information from the Football Association.

Please be assured that your Committee is working very hard to improve our facilities and take the Club forward, but we can only move as quickly as the relevant planning and administration authorities will allow. We are absolutely committed to doing everything correctly and legitimately.

Spence