Priti with Gary White (right), Chairman of Heybridge Swifts and Tim Bruce – Club Committee Member, proudly supporting England’s world cup team, during her tour of the Heybridge Swifts’ Stadium.
Priti tours Heybridge Swifts FC’s Stadium
The MP for Witham, Priti Patel has taken a tour of the Aspen Waite Stadium, Scraley Road, Maldon, home of Heybridge Swifts FC, to check out the improvements that have been made to the facilities there in the last two years.
Priti visited the stadium on Friday 25th November 2022 and was given a full tour by Heybridge Swifts’ Chairman Gary White and Club Committee Member, Tim Bruce. Priti was shown the new all-weather 3G playing surface at the stadium, now fully available for external hire, plus new perimeter fencing, new LED floodlights and a fully refurbished sports bar with an external seating area that can now host functions for up to 200 people.
Before the tour, Priti met with Gary, Tim Bruce and Club Secretary Daryl Parham for a discussion about their plans for the Club’s future and the possibility of obtaining more funding from the Premier League Stadium Fund (PLSF) to which Priti has previously encouraged them to apply.
The PLSF awards capital grants to Clubs to support improvement of their Stadium facilities for players, supporters and officials. This can include funding for new covered seating, LED floodlights, new or refurbished changing rooms, pitch maintenance equipment and boundary fencing to help make stadiums safer and to improve the experience of attending a football match.
The Club has already made good use of these grants which, in most cases provide for up to 70% of the capital cost of such improvements and means the Clubs only have to find the other 30% themselves. The Club’s next project is to install protective ball netting to help ensure fewer balls get kicked outside the Stadium limiting disturbance to the surrounding residential area. After that, a new stand is to be built, currently known as the Mick Gibson stand, affectionally named after the late Club President who was so instrumental in getting the Club to where it is today.
After her visit to the Stadium, Priti said: “I was very interested to see the facilities that are available here and what an asset the Stadium has become to the local community. Activities are not limited to football with other sporting functions and concerts regularly held here. I wish Heybridge Swifts every success this season and in all their future endeavours.”
Gary White, Chairman of the Club said: “We greatly appreciate Priti’s support, and it was a real pleasure to show her our Stadium and all that we have achieved here. We are a community-based football club that operates on a not-for-profit basis and we are very proud of what we have created over the years and of the positive effect the Club has on the physical and mental well-being of so many local people, of all ages.”
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