MAJOR upgrades to Winklebury Football Club stadium have been welcomed by Basingstoke Town Football Club (BTFC), but their chairman says the club still need a home of their own.

Plans for improvements at the home of Hampshire FA have been revealed, which will see the stadium where BTFC currently play upgraded that allow the first team to be promoted.

The works, costing £800,000 are being funded by Basron, the company owned by former chairman Rafi Razzak, through a legally binding agreement following the loss of the Camrose. The funds are given to the borough council which then shares out the money.

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It comes after a planning inspector granted permission for the Camrose to be demolished and 85 dwellings and a 70-bedroom care home to be built on the land.

Speaking about the upgrades, club chairman Jack Miller said: “We are very grateful for Hampshire FA, if they weren’t there we wouldn’t have come back to the town.

"It is not ideal to be playing at a facility that doesn’t belong to us but we can take advantage of the changes."

As part of the upgrades, a fully-fitted clubhouse will be built, and run by the football club which Jack said would be a “massive boost". It will allow the community to come together on matchdays, evenings and during the daytime – and allow the club to generate further income.

Work will also be carried out to increase crowd capacity, an additional turnstile and a storage container which will be used half for a club shop and half for laundry.

“In the immediate term it is great that work is going into Winklebury as it allows us to be promoted, as a grade 3 stadium is required for the league above,” Jack said. The stadium is currently grade 4. 

The club’s first team currently sit four points clear at the top of the Isthmian League South Central Division and will need to improve their facilities should they be promoted at the end of the season.

A further £400,000 will also be given to the council by Basron and can be spent wherever the council feels it would benefit the community, but the club hopes it can secure the funding and a pitch can be built at the leisure park.

Jack said: “We have made our intentions clear to the council; in the short term we want that money to go towards a football pitch for our teams.

“The council knows there is a shortage [of pitches]. It is not like we are going to abandon Winklebury.

“We’re also looking at growing the club even further, alongside the current community works we already do – including our full-time education academy programme, pan-disability football and half-term football camps – with the potential for a second women’s team and adding a grassroots set-up to expand our thriving youth offering. To have such a facility for not just us, but for other teams and groups in the town to utilise too is very much needed.”

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He hopes plans can be developed for a stadium at the leisure park and is developing a brief for how much it would cost. 

“Ideally that stadium would be at the leisure park, there is nothing there, wouldn’t affect residents and it would enhance the other things going on there. It would bring people to use some of the other facilities,” Jack added.

“We have always stood by that there needs to be a replacement ground, like for like. We don’t have a home of our own.”

The club hope that the stadium could be multi-use, not just for the football team to use, but also for music and other community events.

The stadium works will begin in the off-season and are estimated to be completed by June 2023, whilst the clubhouse is likely to be finished later in 2023.