[man in the know]

Blairmount Park, - Newton Stewart Football Club
Norfolk Park, Glencaple - Dumfries Football Club

Surely the committees of these clubsmust undertake major close season drainage works to make these parks suitable for regular South of Scotland Football

[P.A.F.C]

man in the know, on Mar 16 2008, 21:12, said:

Blairmount Park, - Newton Stewart Football Club
Norfolk Park, Glencaple - Dumfries Football Club

Surely the committees of these clubsmust undertake major close season drainage works to make these parks suitable for regular South of Scotland Football

Agree Blairmount is odds on to be unplayable due to wet conditions but it is not the clubs park it was gifted to the towns people by Mr and Mrs Maxwell Blair(hence its name) on 25/3/1887 and although its not strictly a council park either it is them who cut and maintain it .Here endeth the history lesson.

[DG6]

P.A.F.C, on Mar 16 2008, 21:44, said:

Agree Blairmount is odds on to be unplayable due to wet conditions but it is not the clubs park it was gifted to the towns people by Mr and Mrs Maxwell Blair(hence its name) on 25/3/1887 and although its not strictly a council park either it is them who cut and maintain it .Here endeth the history lesson.

All pitches of lesser clubs are struggling....... only Stranraer with proper facilities

[P.A.F.C]

Mr Ed, on Mar 16 2008, 21:57, said:

There are quite a few parks that have been gifted to the local community and are maintained by the council but if the clubs playing there are hoping that the council are going to spend money on them then I think that the clubs will be dissapointed. The council is skint and dont have any spare money floating about. If the community want to spend money on them and I include the team who play there, then nobody is going to try and stop them from making the park better. B)

I agree except on point of council not having spare cash ,here they have just spent £150,000 on a stupid project .Think what improvements that cash would make to Blairmount.

This post has been edited by P.A.F.C: 16 March 2008 - 22:21

[tuckersloan]

Yeah it is a big problem - some of our players (who work in the trades) have already offered to do some work in the summer free of charge to rectify the problem. From my perspective it has forced us withdraw from 2 cups (and an outside chance of some silverware) and thats a real shame. If possible I think that would be a good avenue for some of the money given by the SFA - far better than handing out big signing on fees like some clubs (not ourselves) may end up doing.

P.A.F.C is correct in what he says though. It ain't our park and there lies the problem in making the necessary improvements. This is something the club are trying to rectify though. With this sort of weather likely to continue (or even get worse) something clearly needs to be done. Things ain't always as simple as they appear though.

[DG6]

Mr Ed we are all lesser clubs who cant get our pitches up to standard, we would need full time groundsmen to be a "non" lesser club.

[Slipmat]

8 of the last 10 Dumfries home games at Glencaple have been cancelled because of waterlogging - the council should just have bought the park if they don't already own it and stuck a waterslide at one end and a couple of diving boards at the other and called it DG1 instead of wasting millions of our council tax on their "Flagship Leisure Complex"

[Hoss]

Slipmat, on Mar 18 2008, 21:00, said:

8 of the last 10 Dumfries home games at Glencaple have been cancelled because of waterlogging - the council should just have bought the park if they don't already own it and stuck a waterslide at one end and a couple of diving boards at the other and called it DG1 instead of wasting millions of our council tax on their "Flagship Leisure Complex"

They are always off,can anyone tell me last time Creetown played a home game? or how many Newton have played since xmas or even before then?

[Hoss]

big phil, on Mar 18 2008, 21:46, said:

hoss creetown dont own their park they lease it so not able to do any drainage work commitie n managment have been working their socks off tryin to get home games on. whats your point anyway

No point......just trying to remember when they last played at home? seems an age ago

[P.A.F.C]

Mr Ed, on Mar 18 2008, 22:29, said:

Just out of interest who actually does own their own park ? apart from Stranraer, Saints , Annan ?, Threave ? which ones are council owned and which ones belong to the local community ?
Also if the park does not belong to the club do the changing rooms/ facilities belong to the club.
Example: Abbeyvale - Pitch belongs to the community but the changing rooms belong to the club. B)

As your Abbeyvale example shows mixed ownership will probably appear regularly ie public parks with club or council dressing rooms. eg Newton Stewart

This post has been edited by P.A.F.C: 18 March 2008 - 22:56

[Slipmat]

Mids own their clubhouse but I think the park is owned by a local trust although when the park was originally laid out it was on ground owned by the Playing Fields Assocation - do they still exist?
I'd guess that the Crichton's ground is still owned and maintained by the Health Board?

[DG7]

DG6, on Mar 17 2008, 18:07, said:

<br />Mr Ed we are all lesser clubs who cant get our pitches up to standard, we would need full time groundsmen to be a &quot;non&quot; lesser club.<br />

That's right. Like Motherwell, for example. Ooops!

[Clayhole Blue]

Mr Ed, on Mar 18 2008, 22:29, said:

Just out of interest who actually does own their own park ? apart from Stranraer

Stranraer don't own Stair Park, but they do have a full-time groundsman which is the difference.