Choice of soccer club worries athletics fans

11:05am Tuesday 14th October 2008

THE CHOICE of Enfield Town Football Club as the preferred tenant of the Queen Elizabeth Stadium is worrying people who want the athletics heritage of the ground protected.

The council said that Town would be the incumbent football club when it unveiled a £1.2million plan to restore the stadium in September.

Half a million pounds is set to go on a new athletics track.

But in public consultation on the future of the stadium last spring, Enfield Town Football Club said the laying of a new athletics track at the stadium would have been a priority had it not been for the opening of a new athletics centre at Picketts Lock.

Dave Bryant, a director of the club, said at a council cabinet meeting on October 8 that the club had always wanted to work with other parties over the site.

He added that he also hoped to see a return to the club’s 1980s heyday.

John Hall, who chairs the Friends of Enfield Playing Fields, spoke on behalf of rival Football Club Enfield 1893, Enfield Ignatians Rugby Club, who are based at the stadium, and the QEII Stadium Athletics Partnership. He said: “It is with considerable surprise that we now read that Enfield Town are prepared to work with the athletics track.

“Should we be delighted with this about-turn or nervous about Town’s motives?

“There is a local rumour that Town would like to move the track nearer the Grade II listed building in order to improve the view of the football.”

Mr Bryant added that the pitch does not meet Football Association requirements.

He said: “It is not wide enough. It needs to be a football stadium as well as meeting the requirements of people who want to use the track.”

He said the club would think about removing lanes of the track to achieve this.

Council leader Michael Rye said the track would be ready for use in 2010 but he hoped it might be possible to bring the opening date forward.

The council also rejected a plan from Enfield Town FC for ten five-a-side synthetic turf pitches to be created on Enfield Playing Fields.

Enfield Town FC split from Enfield FC in 2001.