ILMINSTER NEWS: Storage container set for Britten’s Field

A FORMER Mayor of Ilminster has said that people who “like to whinge, will whinge” when they hear that the football club wants to put in a large storage container on land next to the Archie Gooch Pavilion in Britten’s Field.

Members of Ilminster Town Council last month agreed to support a request by the club to put in the container – 40ft x 8ft x 8ft – in Britten’s Field for the storage of football equipment.

Craig Stuckey, of Ilminster Town Council, told councillors that a lot of the existing storage space within the pavilion, which only opened this summer, was taken up by user-groups and furniture such as tables and chairs.

There was therefore a need for the container to house goalposts and other football equipment.

Although councillors were disappointed that the club needed to do this, they felt they had little option but to support the move.

Cllr Don Kinder said: “I don’t understand why this wasn’t put in the original build for the pavilion.”

Cllr Philip Burton added: “It seems a shame to have a lovely building and then put in a container next to it.”

Cllr Rob Drayton said: “This is a great facility for the club and the community. Nobody wants to stand in the way of the magnificent pavilion.

“But there was considerable opposition to the building of the pavilion in the first place and there will be opposition by people to this as well.

“It is just a shame that the pavilion wasn’t built a little bit bigger from the start.”

But Cllr John Fagan said: “There might be a bigger outcry if community groups couldn’t use the pavilion because it was full of football equipment.”

Former Mayor, Cllr Roger Swann, said: “They have got a problem. The physio room is currently being used to store the kit.

“With it being such a great building do they really want to store manky goalposts and dirty kits in there?”

Cllr Swann added: “We are holding up progress and the container can be disguised behind screening.

“But people who enjoy a whinge will have a whinge about it.”

Ilminster Town’s Mr Stuckey, who is manager of the club's ladies team, old councillors that the container was important for the club to move forward.

And he quipped: “I need to clear the back of my van out of all the football stuff that is in it!”

Councillors voted 10-2 in favour, with two abstentions, to support the request subject to the approval of South Somerset District Council’s tree officer to make sure the container did not damage any natural habitat in Britten’s Field.

Tags:
News.