Local residents support Alderley Athletic JFC

Having secured a ten year lease from Macclesfield Borough Council for the pavilion at Chorley Hall football ground the chairman of Alderley Athletic Junior Football Club Jonathan Rowley began his appeal for funding. Having been neglected for some time the pavilion was in a terrible state and with plans to create a clubhouse, changing rooms and drain the waterlogged pitch £50,000 was required.

Unfortunately Alderley Institute Trust, a fund set up in 2002 to aid community projects, with £630,000 from the sale of St Philip’s Institute, turned Jonathan down twice saying that the current state of the economy was to blame. Undeterred Alderley Athletic Junior Football Club, known as The Squirrels, set about raising the funds and doing the work themselves.

According to Jonathan “The Institute in Alderley Edge should be ashamed of themselves as they turned us down, they gave £50,000 to Nether Alderley Reading rooms instead of supporting a Junior Football club which benefits children of the village”.

Thanks to the support and generosity of many local residents, including property developer Peter Jones who donated £1000, banker Allan Hodges and his employers Deutsche Bank  who donated £2000 and many local tradesmen who have offered their services for free, good progress has been made. Local volunteers and community service people have also been involved recently with painting the inside of the pavilion but there is still lots to do, particularly the plumbing.

Although the pavilion is now usable about £15,000 additional funding is required to complete the work. Jonathan is still trying to get funds from the council and explained that “£4000 was allocated in 2003 in the form of a 106 fund but nothing was ever spent on the project”.

Looking to the future Jonathan told us “The field is woefully underdeveloped and we have plans to improve the facility if we can get more access to it and the attention of Cheshire East” however “we have heard rumours that the field may be partly or wholly turned over to allotments which will end up in a local riot”.

Alderley Athletic Junior Football Club will be expanding to five teams for 2009/2010 and will be holding an Open Morning on June 13 so any budding footballers, male or female aged 7-11, should go along to the Chorley Hall football field between 10am and 12 noon.

For further information email [email protected] or visit www.alderleyathleticjfc.co.uk.

Tags:

Alderley Athletic JFC, Alderley Edge Trust, Cheshire East Council, Football, The Squirrels