The K's In Point

Re: Tonight's Q&A

By SDG (SDG (Ks))29/8/2022 23:39Mon Aug 29 23:39:54 2022In response to Tonight's Q&A

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Echo the thanks to the board for doing this and to those who helped organise it, a much needed session. Microphones would be helpful in future, they were usually there at SC quiz nights so maybe that system could be used next time?

The debate has been going on for years now so it’s hard to remember the exact who said what on the track. But I’m glad the directors aren’t ruling it out, it does feel like there’s been a change of tone on it. Reading between the lines, I suspect for most of the last seven years they’ve felt better options were available (golf course, Casuals, Goals, Lovelace) but as each has been exhausted that may no longer be the case.

It’s interesting that an officer not a councillor told the club it’s unavailable. Not clear whether or not the officer gave the directors a reason, though Cllr Sweeney commented in Feb that, “The most pressing [reason] is that the green part is not long enough for whatever Kingstonian's football requirement is." As has been discussed here at length, if this is a problem at all it’s certainly fixable. At the very least, we should be pushing the Council harder on this.

Mark seemed to think we’d easily be able to afford the necessary alterations, which is encouraging. Although we’d have to be aware there’d be a big difference between doing the bare minimum to make ground grading, and actually making it into something good. That’s of course true for any ground but we can move in with the bare minimum and improve over time.

If not already, we ought to reach out to clubs that share with athletics to understand how they make it work. We have Hornchurch and Enfield in our league but probably the best template is Chelmsford. Like Enfield they have terracing behind both goals, but unlike Enfield they also host high level athletics competitions including the National Athletics League (the same level as Kingston & Poly) and county championships (which SCAA often host at KM). The football club also have their own clubhouse there which they hire out.

It clearly can be done, as it works in many other places. We have money ourselves and the Council acknowledges the site needs improving so may be happy to spend some themselves, especially with a school opening and a huge regeneration project happening round the corner. More a question though of whether there’s the will, from both Ks and the Council,, to make it happen.

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