THE council and sports organisations in Basingstoke must come together to ensure the town’s football club has a place to call home, a councillor has said.

In his maiden speech on Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, Cllr Steve Williams told the authority that lessons must be learnt from the loss of the Camrose stadium.

In 2016 Basingstoke Town Football Club was kicked out of the ground by its former owner Rafi Razzak and his company Basron.

Earlier this year, permission was granted for 85 dwellings and a 70-bedroom care home on the football stadium site after a government inspector approved Mr Razzak’s appeals.

Now, the council is being urged to support the football club in finding a new stadium to call home.

Councillors have called for land to be earmarked within plans to regenerate Basingstoke Leisure Park which could be used as a multi-purpose sports stadium.

It comes as members have told authority officers to review the masterplan approved by the cabinet in October.

During a debate at a meeting of the full council on Thursday, December 15, Cllr Williams said that he was an advocate for a community sports hub being built at the leisure park.

He continued: “What I would like to do is draw lessons from my involvement as a director of Basingstoke Town Community Football Club, working with others to try and save the Camrose ground. The key lesson for me was that (the Camrose) was lost because from the outset we didn't work collectively together to make clear to Mr Razzak, that the approach that should have been adopted was to say Mr Razzak if you are going to develop the Camrose you need to make sure that a brand new pitch is made available for football in the borough.

“We didn't make that clear enough, we weren't strong enough in that approach. The key thing was we didn't work in partnership, we all operated within our own particular silo, myself included.

“I believe that if we are going to make a successful bold ambitious picture for the leisure park that means working effectively with the Football Foundation, with Sport England, with the Hampshire FA and above all this council pulling that together and making sure that we are not working in our narrow silo.”

The football club currently play at the Winklebury Football Complex but is hoping to find a new home.

In August, the current chairman Jack Miller confirmed to the Gazette that he had been in discussion with key members of the council, and Basingstoke Leisure Park and Manydown have been discussed as potential sites.