NEWCASTLE Football Club has been awarded £274,000 to provide sport facilities for local people at the heart of the community. This funding, which will be delivered through the government’s Community Ownership Fund, will provide a significant boost to local people in Newcastle by supporting improved facilities for a full range of sports.
It has signalled the club’s move to a new site on the outskirts of the town, and comes about after it emerged, in 2022, that it would be losing facilities it had used at Shimna Integrated College, due to the expansion of the school. This asset was widely used by the club and the community with an estimated 30,000 participation opportunities per annum. Newcastle FC – which has more than 300 members – will now develop sports facilities at Church Hill just off the Castlewellan Road. The project will include the construction of a grass pitch as a sand carpet pitch, measuring 107m by 70m, plus changing facilities. The project, according to club officials, “will empower Newcastle FC to have a new home and to unlock the potential for the club to develop at all levels”, including its sporting performance, strengthening financial sustainability, and further investing “in the community fabric and social infrastructure” of the town. It is also believed that “the social return on investment will be significant across the Newcastle area.” Newcastle FC chairperson, Sean Kelly, has acknowledged that the loss of the school pitch was “a massive blow for our club, the children and young people plus the senior players and wider community who have lost this crucial recreational asset”. However, he explained, that from this knockback, it “empowered our club to pursue community ownership” and look at alternative sites.
Mr Kelly continued: “We have made huge strides in terms of the club structure and advanced to a project state of readiness with planning permission obtained, match funding secured and a clear vision for the future of the club to provide a recreational and community facility for everyone in the local area. “We are delighted to have secured Community Ownership Fund investment that will empower the club to animate our vision to provide sporting facilities for club programmes and activities. “The new facilities will give Newcastle FC the opportunity to establish a home that will create wider community benefit through the medium of football and non-sport related activities, allowing for a community improvement in health and wellbeing, education, social inclusion, and volunteer opportunities.”
He added: “This project will build and sustain Newcastle FC by creating a new sporting and recreational facility that will complement the national governing body Irish FA strategies and the Local Authority Sports Facility Strategy to boost grassroots participation. “The relocated facility will improve the quality of the experience that will encourage players, spectators, coaches, officials, and volunteers to continue their involvement in the game and contribute towards the growth and development of Newcastle FC as a culturally significant organisation for local people.” Mr Kelly added that “Newcastle FC will build a sustainable sporting home for Newcastle”, with initial capital support received from the Community Ownership Fund to deliver the capital element of the project. “Newcastle FC is committed to community ownership of the new facility and that the whole community feel an affinity and an element of ownership of this planned new asset.” The club has put on record its thanks to Richard Forsythe (Forsythe Consulting), Margaret Craig (Development Trust NI) and Community Ownership Fund for their support and assistance.
Mr Kelly concluded: “We would also extend thanks all the local groups, other sports clubs, organisations, and the cross-party political support received to help with our Community Ownership Fund grant successful outcome. “Newcastle FC would also wish to publicly thank Shimna Integrated College for many years of partnership working and we send our gratitude to the school for continued support.” The club have been supported by Forsythe Consulting Ltd to develop this project. Its director, Richard Forsythe, said he was “delighted” that Newcastle Football Club have secured “much-needed funding” to create a new sporting home for the club and the community. “I have been working with the club for a number of years and they are a vital pillar of the local community. The reposition of the club facility will mitigate the loss of the Shimna sports pitch asset. “Sport helps unite people and these enhanced amenities will strengthen the club’s capacity to contribute to community cohesion in Newcastle,” he explained.