PETERSFIELD Town Juniors Football Club has stunned the town council with the news it could vacate its Love Lane pavilion home. The bombshell comes just weeks after the town council, which owns the building, was denied permission for non-sporting tenants to use part of the premises. And taxpayers could be left to pick up the £6,500 bill from the loss of rent the council collects each year from Little Pieces Nursery, which currently operates in the pavilion. Now the building could be left entirely empty after Town Juniors (PTJ) chairman Ian Essai admitted the club was outgrowing the purpose-built sports facility. With more than 300 members, PTJ is the third largest community club of its kind in Hampshire. And Mr Essai told The Herald this week the rapidly increasing population in Petersfield and the need for extra girls' changing rooms could see the club investigating the possibility of a new home in the near future. He said it may involve moving with the adult team to the proposed new "sports village" at Penns Place. Or it could even mean buying its own land. Mr Essai said: "We are trying to build a community club here. We need to look to the future and we are outgrowing our current facilities. Penns Place would be the ideal place for us. "It is not immediate, and this is a long-term strategy. This could be between three and seven years - a plan for the next 10 years even. "But the numbers will start coming up and we won't be able to get the games in, and we might have to shrink as a club. "All I'm interested in is the growth of our club. We want to create the energy to look after our future. "We need to look at other options. It might be Penns Place, and we might just buy our own space. "We need to look at a five-year plan. We are the third largest kids' football club in Hampshire and we are very successful." East Hampshire District Council, which is seeking to revamp sports in the region, told Petersfield Town Council last month the building was desperately needed for community sports groups. But town councillors want to reapply for dual sports and community use to benefit from the rent the council receives. If the building were to be left empty it could cost thousands of pounds to maintain - and with no one using it. Chris Jenner, chairman of the town council's grounds committee, told The Herald this week he had been "left in the dark" by EHDC and feared it would be hard to fill the pavilion should both the Town Juniors and the nursery leave. He said: "It is very worrying for us financially. I wish there was more discussion with us - I'm in the dark with it. "The sports plans all seem to be cloaked in secrecy and if you ask five different people you get five different answers. "If you are generating income you are ploughing it back in. The only way we have of generating money is through rent and council tax. "If we lose the rental income that will have ramifications. So of course this will have a knock-on effect on council tax. "We have spent a lot of money improving the playing fields there and the same is in our budget for this year." Mr Jenner said the town council had initially built the pavilion to the specifications required for the Town Juniors. "We built and designed what they asked for. We spent £250,000 building it for them. "EHDC does not have anything in mind for our facilities, but they have at Penns Place. I don't really understand it. "And I think we would be reluctant to extend the changing rooms there with the very real possibility that the club will leave." l PETERSFIELD town councillors decided last week to readvertise facilities in the pavilion in a bid to help their Little Pieces Nursery Group tenants to get a permanent home. Members of the council's planning committee decided to recommend the council to re- advertise the room after district colleagues threw out their planning application for permanent dual - sports and community - use of the pavilion. The application was thrown out because East Hampshire district councillors felt the building was desperately needed for sport. They said town councillors had not done enough to advertise the venue for sporting use only. But last week town councillor George Watkinson and town clerk Barbara Macken visited EHDC solicitor Michael Lawther and planning officer Jeremy Heppel to discuss how they could appeal against the decision. Reporting back to colleagues on the town council's planning committee, Mr Watkinson said: "It would appear that we have effectively been caught in the EHDC drive for improved sports facilities in Petersfield, particularly for youth, and the statement at the planning meeting by a Petersfield district councillor that Petersfield Town Juniors Football Club was a growing concern and in need of expansion." Mr Watkinson said that during his discussions with Mr Lawther: "It was obvious that the Town Juniors could not afford a rent that covered the cost of the rates and annual maintenance which the current rent from Little Pieces and Town Juniors does cover, this leading to an added burden to the ratepayers." He told the meeting EHDC officers were surprised at the rating value placed on the pavilion and have agreed to see if it could be reduced. "Our biggest downfall had been not showing that we had tried to market the meeting room, and that the only offer had been from Little Pieces," said Mr Watkinson. He said Mr Lawther had suggested that the town council should market the room again to show there was no alternative but to have dual use of the facility and then reapply to EHDC for dual use planning permission. Town councillors have been told that no action would be taken to remove Little Pieces from the pavilion while the town council was considering reapplying for planning permission.
