New pitch for local football club

A football team in Oldham has been given the go-ahead to take over a plot of land as their new home pitch.

Saddleworth FC will develop a ‘stunning but neglected’ part of Bishops Park into a site for training and home games. 

Oldham Council approved the 30-year use of the field, which is on  charity trust land. The area was previously used as a pitch, with rusted goalposts still visible, but has not been maintained since 2019. 

Mike Leyland, Saddleworth FCs chairperson (pictured below) said: “Football is growing. Every year we get bigger numbers of boys and girls signing up for our teams. But the number of pitches in the borough is low, so we’re trying to make sure when they play and move up the ages, they have the right pitches to play on.” 

The club has 15 junior teams aged seven to 14 and an academy with more than 50 five and six year-olds. They also have a mixed-age team with adults, and plans to create a pan-disability team. 

Leyland noted that because of the FA’s ‘Future Fit’ youth program, even neighbourhood football clubs now need a ‘home turf’ to offer nine-a-side football to youngsters. 

“It basically means every team needs a home pitch – so we’re hoping to make this our home,” he said. 

The football team would be tasked with creating and maintaining the grounds, which would be open for use by the public when the club isn’t using it. 

Local councillor Josh Charters said: “There are a lot of residents who comment about the state of the area, so it’s really good to see it being improved. We have a lot of greens but not necessarily a lot of places to play sports.” 

He added that he knew the spot attracted a lot of littering ‘because youngsters go up there to sneak a bottle of vodka’. He believed having the club’s presence there would help deter anti-social behaviour and keep the spot clean. 

The decision was made by the council’s Charitable Trust Committee on Monday evening, March 17.

Councillor Sam Al-Hamdani, who has worked on bringing the pitch back into use for a number of years, added: “This is a public facility that had simply been abandoned, and left to go wild. It should be being used; we’re desperately short of facilities across the borough.

“Saddleworth FC have done a fantastic job of showing why this is needed. There’s a huge amount of work required to turn this around, so if there’s anyone out there who can help, get in touch.”