AFC Portchester made the following deputation during the full council meeting of Fareham Borough Council yesterday evening (Thursday).

Councillors debated the proposal to introduce parking charges at Wicor Recreation Ground - a report of the meeting will follow shortly.

The statement below gives the club's latest position on the proposals and an update on the progress made to date.

Firstly we would like to thank residents who signed the petition on the introduction of parking charges to Wicor Recreation Ground’s car parks.

With over 1,700 signatories the response shows the strength of feeling against the proposals from the local community.

Secondly, we would like to thank councillors for their responses towards the football club since news of the proposals became public.

The three Portchester East borough councillors who have voiced their concerns over the plans and their possible impact on the football club and the wider community - they have shown their support and understanding of residents in the village.

Also we thank the reactions of councillors which were displayed at the two meetings where these proposals have already been discussed - the Health and Public Protection Scrutiny Panel on March 29 and the Executive on April 3.

The vast majority of councillors have recognised the importance of the football club to Portchester and the wider community across the borough of Fareham, and we are very grateful and encouraged by the many comments made that the council needed to work with the club to mitigate the impact parking charges could have on the club’s activities.

This understanding of the club by the council gives us a solid platform to build from in terms of working together to find some ways ahead which will be to the benefit of all parties involved.

Since the petition was set up and submitted, things have already moved forward in terms of the football club’s involvement with these proposals.

We are in the process of meeting with council officers to review our current lease and look at the club’s wider use of Wicor Recreation Ground and its associated facilities with a view to taking a more active role in their use and upkeep.

Due to the commercially sensitive nature of these discussions I am not at liberty to go into more details at this meeting but we are looking to reach an agreement with the council at the earliest opportunity when our discussions reach a successful conclusion.

In the feasibility report which accompanies the proposal, mention is made of plans to expand the car parking provision at Wicor Recreation Ground. The football club would like to put it on record that we would wholeheartedly support such a plan and we will be actively looking at developing this further, including looking at sources of revenue to help make it happen - for example grant funding from the Football Foundation.

In all of the statements made on the parking charge proposals by the football club, we have recognised the council’s position in terms of the financial challenges they are facing and their need to review their revenue streams - both current ones and new opportunities.

While it seems almost inevitable that parking charges will be introduced at Wicor Recreation Ground now, we welcomed the comments from council leader Sean Woodward at the Executive meeting, that a different approach to the coastal car parking scheme could be applied to the Wicor site, for example a different set of parking charges and time periods when they could be applied.

If it is decided to go ahead with the proposals, we would like to see the council consider a variation on charges over the weekends so that the costs of parking would be mitigated for our players, supporters, staff and volunteers at a time when they are most commonly using the site for their football related activities.

We suggest something like a maximum charge of £2.20 for a four hour period to cover the time someone is playing in or watching a football match on Saturdays or Sundays.

This would also be of benefit to local residents and visitors too who would be able to take advantage of these reduced parking charges at weekends throughout the year.

If charging was at the suggested rate of £1.10 per hour Mondays to Fridays between the hours of 10am and 6pm, this would allow people to continue parking for free when attending evening matches in the stadium.

The club feels it is important for ourselves, the borough council, residents and Hampshire County Council to continue the excellent work already being carried out to reduce parking and traffic issues on Cranleigh Road and the surrounding streets.

We welcome the borough council’s calls on the county council to review traffic regulations on the approach roads to Wicor Recreation Ground and we hope that the necessary steps can be taken to improve the flow of traffic trying to access the Wicor site along what are narrow and twisting access roads.

The football club will be continuing the car parking initiatives we have been working on with local residents which includes the provision of an overflow car park, WhatsApp group and residents supplementing our own stewarding provision. And we will be looking at building on that successful partnership with the local community to introduce further improvements to this initiative.

In conclusion, the idea of introducing car parking charges at Wicor Recreation Ground has been widely unpopular throughout the local community.

We as a club welcome the council’s willingness to consider ways in which the impact of charges being introduced - if the proposals go ahead - can be mitigated through varying the scheme for this coastal car park in comparison to what is currently being applied at other sites.

We are fully committed already to meeting with the council to find ways we can mitigate the impact the introduction of parking charges would have and we will be pursuing these discussions until they reach a successful conclusion - both on the coastal car park scheme and on our lease and wider use of the recreation ground.

It is vitally important we all do what we can to bring about the necessary changes to ensure residents on Cranleigh Road and the surrounding streets are not badly impacted by any introduction of parking charges at Wicor Recreation Ground.

Any actions which can be taken to improve and enhance both traffic regulations on these roads and their safety, for example visibility on the tight corners and provision for pedestrians trying to access the recreation ground, should be considered as soon as possible.

In an ideal world I don’t think anyone involved in this issue would like to see parking charges being implemented at Wicor Recreation Ground.

However, there are some opportunities here where by working together we can all find solutions to mitigate the impact this scheme will have on the football club and the wider community, and there are also some positive opportunities in the form of the football club’s more involved use of Wicor and its facilities and the chance to try and improve access and parking issues on the roads approaching the recreation ground.