Romford FC is coming home!!
Romford FC has been granted planning permission to build a brand new stadium and will return to the borough for the first time in more than 10 years.
Last night (Thursday, October 25) Havering Council’s planning committee unanimously voted in favour of the plans.
Despite some questions raised by Councillor David Durant about the council’s support for other sports centres in the borough, namely Chaffords Sports Complex, the vote was passed with all eight votes in favour of the committee resolving to grant permission for the Romford FC stadium, subject to various conditions.
Romford now has three years to start work on the new stadium to be built on Westlands Playing Fields.
The state of the art ground will include a 3G pitch, floodlights, a club house, a food kiosk, stand and 22 parking spaces.
For the last 27 years the club has been operating without a home, and for the last decade they have been playing outside of Havering.
Last season they played home games at Ship Lane and ground shared with Thurrock FC and this season they have been doing the same with East Thurrock United.
Councillor Viddy Persaud said before the committee: “This is a great thing for Romford, it’s good for the supporters and our people.
“We as councillors of Brooklands Ward recommend that this application go through tonight.”
Steve Gardener, Romford FC Chairman, told the Recorder: “We were hoping that it would go through.
“It’s been a long time going for us, we’ve put in a couple of applications before and we weren’t able to progress with those due to it being green belt land and only being able to get a one year lease from the council - that didn’t make it attractive for funding bodies.
“I’m really pleased for the supporters of the club, the managers and the players. There are a lot of people in and around the club that have been very patient.
“We have got alot of supporters that remember us playing in Romford, hopefully that’s something that we can now deliver to them.”
Speaking about the stadiums potential for the wider community, Steve added: “That’s one of the things we want to emphasise - it will be a community facility.
“We have had community projects in the past that we haven’t been sustainable because we haven’t had a home or a base in which to carry them out.”
The Romford FC Chairman mentioned walking football and fitness classes as possible activities for the community to take part in.
“The next thing is to sit down with the council and drill down a little bit into the details, and then go to funding bodies and find out what their requirements are,” said Steve.”
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