Hungerford eyes up Newbury football stand

Club puts in application to relocate seating to Bulpit Lane

HUNGERFORD Football Club want to dismantle the spectator stand at Newbury FC’s former Faraday Road ground and re-erect it at their own home in Bulpit Lane.

Newbury FC’s 55-year stay at Faraday Road came to an end in June after West Berkshire Council refused to extend their lease.

The council wants to replace the ground with flats as part of its wider plan to regenerate the London Road Industrial Estate and said that, as a result, it needed to have the site ready for development.

Newbury FC now play their Thames Valley Division 1 home games at Brimpton Football Club.

This week, a prior notification application was submitted by Norman Matthews, on behalf of Hungerford FC, who play in National League South, just two tiers outside the Football League.

In the application, it says that the stand will need to be carefully stripped down and re-erected using the same contracting team at Bulpit Lane.

It estimates the work will take around three weeks to complete.

The Faraday Road ground is temporarily unavailable while the council surveys its condition and safety.

Subject to the results of the survey work, the local authority aims to have the site open in September and will be making it freely available to the public as a multi-use games area.