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Following planning acceptance for ground developments at Lowther Road, required by the FA to continue to allow WEFC to play step 5/6 football, members of the Committee, lead by President Mark Ashwell, are now working together to apply for a Football Foundation grant to pay for these developments. The grant application is onerous and contains many facets and requirements which have to be completed in full to be successful. Much of this work has already been completed and it is hoped that the application can be ready for submission by November 2018 in preparation for the Foundation Panel to adjudicate in January 2019.
 
If successful we are hopeful that the ground development work - floodlights, a small stand, fencing, hard standing and many other smaller FA requirements at the ground, will be completed in preparation for the 2019/2020 season so the Sumas can come home again.
 
However, the Football Foundation will only grant WEFC most of the funds required for the project and the club will have to find a significant balance, probably around £30k, to activate the grant. These funds will have to be contributed through local sponsorship which the club are actively looking to find at the present time and would be very grateful of any suggestions to help us find this amount.

Report from Robin Gofton..
Everything that we have to do routinely as part of our “health check” would have been looked at – it was an award for “Charter Standard Club of the Year”, so I’m sure the health check will have been looked at.
In addition, the things that were mentioned in the awards speech that set us apart from other nominations included:

• The size and scope of our teams – the fact that we have over 500 members, from age 6 upwards, boys, girls, men and women, with a clear pathway from youth football into senior football
• Special mention was given to Dave Goodwin’s DNA document, that it gives a clear vision for the club, our values, how we coach and look to develop players – think it would be well worth sending put to all the coaches again at the start of the new season

The speeches were short and to the point. It was one of the categories that had the highest number of nominations, but I think the way in which Dave in particular goes the extra mile (with the DNA document, and in the relationship he has with BBFA in hosting CPD events and so on) probably helped our case enormously and set us apart from others.