FOOTBALL: Town council rent discount to help club find its feet

A FORMER Mayor said he was “embarrassed” that Ilminster Town Council put in just £5,000 to help fund the building of a new pavilion headquarters for the town’s football club.

The Archie Pavilion – as it will be called rather than the originally suggested Gooch Pavilion – is nearing completion on Britten’s Field adjoining Ilminster Recreation Ground.

Members of the town council – who own Britten’s Field – have agreed to set a rent of £1,625 per annum for the new facilities on a 25-year lease.

But the council has also agreed that it will give the club a sizeable discount of 80 per cent for the first five years which will be gradually reduced over time.

It means that for the first five years of the Archie Pavilion being in operation the football club will have to pay a rent of just £325 thanks to the discount.

The discount level will have dropped to 50 per cent by Year 11 meaning that the club will have to find a rent of £893.

PHOTOS: Work continues on the new headquarters for Ilminster Town FC which will become a facility available to the whole community.

But by Year 21 the full rent – as per recommended by the council’s licensing negotiations group of Cllrs John Fagan, Rose Neave and Sophie Storey – of £1,625 will have to be paid.

Cllr Fagan said they felt the discounts would help to get the club “up and running.”

“We want the football club to succeed and not to put too many barriers in its way,” he told councillors at the council’s monthly meeting back on February 23, 2016. “The sliding scale of discounts would disappear over the 25 years.”

Work is continuing on completing the £600,000 project which has been named the Archie Pavilion in honour of Archie Gooch, who’s name lives on with the Ilminster-based Gooch Charitable Trust which has been a major supporter of the project.

The club has raised the lion’s share of the funding required to build and fit-out the new community facility along with a £5,000

Former Mayor, Cllr Roger Swann, said: “This is very sensible. The club has to find its feet at the start.”

The club has raised the lion’s share of the funding required to build and fit-out the new community facility along with a £5,000 grant from the town council.

And Cllr Swann, who was in support of giving the club an 80 per cent discount on rent in the early years, said: “I found it embarrassing what we put in. At least this is our way of helping them.”

Cllr Rob Drayton said: “The football club does well for the town. We need to help them show that the town council is doing its bit and help the club and the youth of the future.”

Cllr Sophie Storey said: “This is our way of supporting the project and helps the football club to budget with their business plan.

“We have committed to this organisation and they are doing a huge amount themselves.”

Cllr Carol Goodall added: “They have worked extremely hard to get where they are today. The amount of money they have raised is phenomenal and they should be applauded.”

She said that the rent relief would help the club to “establish a firm base” to move on.

But Cllr Julie Fowler suggested that the rent should be looked at again after five years. “We don’t want to be held hostage to these figures in years to come,” she said.

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