Maidenhead RFC chairman says loss of green space to stadium would be 'criminal'

The chairman of Maidenhead Rugby Football Club (RFC) said it would be ‘criminal’ to allow the development of a new football stadium to take away the ‘precious' green space.

Steve Bough made the remark at last night’s Maidenhead Town Forum meeting, where he explained why the club are against a proposed move by Maidenhead United Football Club to build a 5,200-capacity stadium with additional facilities at Braywick Park.

He said: “It really is criminal if this will be allowed to take away such a precious, precious part of Maidenhead’s green space.”

Mr Bough said they believe the development (for which no application has yet been submitted), is a ‘financially beneficial move’ for the Magpies’ because the club is looking to earn revenue to help finance the club from the additional ‘business-based facilities’, which it does not have space to build at York Road.

He explained to members that Maidenhead RFC has been in discussions with the football club, but the detail on specifics is still ‘lacking’ in ‘a lot of the areas’.

Mr Bough explained the development would mean the loss of eight to 10 regularly used and protected rugby pitches and that it would restrict the club’s options to change the space if needed including putting in posts or expanding the usage time.

He added that in the lease the Royal Borough has agreed with Maidenhead United, the rugby club has been allocated two hours on a Sunday morning.

“It’s just sort of rail-roading over everybody without consulting us at all about how we need to use the park.”

Mr Bough’s presentation at the Town Forum comes two months after Magpies’ chief executive Jon Adams attended the meeting to provide more details about the proposals, which he said would improve the existing facilities and meet the club’s growing grassroots football and community wellbeing programmes.

At the meeting in September, Mr Adams said the club ‘continues to be in positive dialogue’ with Maidenhead RFC and has offered the rugby club use of its stadium for its junior teams.

At last night’s meeting Mr Bough said the offer of the stadium ‘is not acceptable’ and ‘it’s not how we go through the progression stages of our youth rugby’.

“We want to maintain those grass pitches. We want our young kids to go out and play on the grass in the fresh air.

“We don’t want them in an enclosed stadium that separates them out from everybody else that’s playing there,” Mr Bough said.

He added that while the proposed stadium is ‘very beautiful’ and the upgrade to the running track ‘is a benefit’, the proposed facilities can already be found at Braywick and the land is ‘slowly being eaten away and eroded and disappearing’ following development of the park.

Mr Bough added: “We’ve lost so much of the park, and this is just another nine acres. It’s a massive part of the park that’s going to be built over and in-accessible 99 per cent of the time to the people of Maidenhead.

“We’re concerned this is a business-based development on a valuable, precious, unique green belt sports centre.

Later in the meeting, Maidenhead Athletic Club chairman Derek Philip-Xu reinforced the club’s support of the Magpies’ proposals, stating that the proposed upgraded ‘state-of-the-art’ facilities including a 300m four-lane running track are a ‘significant upgrade’ to the current facilities which are ‘poorly maintained’ and ‘unlit’.