Transformation set to start after grant secured

Bedworth United are looking forward to kicking off in the new Evo-Stik Northern Premier League campaign on the latest 3G surface after announcing that they’d overcome their final funding hurdle.

Work is inspected to get underway within days on a £600,000 transformation of the First Division South club’s Oval ground after delighted officials received confirmation of a £357,680 grant from the Premier League and the FA Facilities Fund on Friday.

The project is expected to take 12 weeks to complete to enable FA approval testing to take place in time for the start of next season in mid-August.

The ambitious plan is being backed by Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council and was launched by the Greenbacks nearly a year ago after the club agreed a new long term lease on their ground. United's Vice-Chairman Neil Rayson-Randle is donating the balance of the funds as a personal gift to the local community.

Rayson-Randle, who joined the club in 2011 and is the owner of Nuneaton-based Ray-Ran Test Equipment, is keen to put the club at the heart of the community and set a blueprint for community-based grassroots football for others to follow following their funding success.

In a statement on the club’s website, he said: "Our thanks must go to Hanna Buckley and the Birmingham FA team who have been most helpful with the planning application. Their guidance has been paramount in securing the grant.

"Thanks also to Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council for their assistance with the planning consent and allowing a long-term thirty-one-year lease for the Oval to be granted."

Rayson-Randle also hailed the club's volunteers and fans and added: "Whilst what we are doing is good and will hopefully build an environment that will last well into the future for the generations that will follow us, let us not forget the army of unpaid volunteers who have worked uncountable hours to keep grassroots football going in our town. The 'Green Army Stalwarts' as I call them deserve our praise and gratitude."

When completed Bedworth’s new facilities are expected to be used by a wide range of local organisations, community groups and clubs in a number of sports as well as by the club’s own first team, U18s, their Ladies side and 16 youth teams of all ages.

Coventry City Ladies are among the clubs already looking forward to playing at the new venue which will also be used by local schools and colleges during the day. As the facility will be run as a non-profit organisation, the excess revenue generated will be ploughed back into developing further facilities.