Council eyes new home for Somercotes rugby club

The Amber Valley Sports Playing Pitch Strategy has assessed the needs of the borough for the next five years and has found widespread expansion and improvement of facilities is required.

Of particular importance, it highlights, is securing the long-term security of Amber Valley Rugby Club, with a priority to explore options a new home for the club.

The report also says Alfreton is among 72 locations being considered for a new national indoor tennis centre.

It says the borough has a ‘significant netball landscape with two of the biggest clubs in the county originating from the borough’, and there is a need for more facilities, suggesting further netball space could be built within the potential new tennis centre.

A number of sports sites across the borough are continually affected by both flooding and poor drainage and this is a key priority to fix, with feasibility studies to be carried out for key sites.

The plan details sports facilities on school sites are currently ‘poor’ and the council could pursue housing developers for payments associated with new homes schemes to help fund improvements.

Overall, the plan says there is a shortage of four full-time 3G artificial grass pitches.

Current facilities for most sports are generally capable of meeting current demand but have been found to be insufficient to provide space for a future increase in activity.

Without further facilities, such as for football, cricket or rugby, existing pitches can become ‘overplayed’, through overuse.

On Amber Valley Rugby Club, based off the B600 in Somercotes, the report details: “Pursue proposed site relocation and the development of a new rugby union club site for Amber Valley RUFC, ensuring the proposal is able to meet Sport England playing field policy and new provision is developed to recommended RFU design specifications.

“If the prospective move does not take place, look to secure long-term tenure of the site for AVRC and make relevant improvements to pitch quality to alleviate overplay.”

The Somercotes site is a former toxic tip which had been used to deposit harmful materials for years.

It is currently the subject of plans for up to 250 homes, along with a scheme for a range of industrial units.