Youth football club in Corby left without clubhouse for over a year as council fails to sort out subsidence problem
A youth football club in Corby has been forced to live without their clubhouse for over a year due to a lack of intervention from the council.
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00:00 A few years back, we put out loads of feelers,
00:04 contacted loads of companies to ask them for donations
00:08 to help try and renovate the inside.
00:11 That started and we called it our big build.
00:14 We got through all that as a club and it was up and running.
00:19 It was a real home for the children.
00:23 It was a base for everybody, open to the public,
00:26 anybody could come in.
00:28 And then in September last year, in 2022,
00:31 we noticed some cracks on a rear wall
00:33 in the changing room side of the building.
00:35 So we contacted the council,
00:38 they've obviously done their reports.
00:40 It's came back that it's some subsidence.
00:43 We're not allowed to enter the building.
00:44 The council have now cordoned it off,
00:46 as you can see from the fence to our left.
00:49 And we keep chasing for updates and the council,
00:54 they're probably stuck in limbo as well,
00:56 but somebody needs to take accountability for it now.
00:59 With the children are missing out here.
01:01 There's nearly 200 children at this club now,
01:04 ranging from the age of three to 17.
01:06 And I just feel 14 months is a long time
01:12 for insurance companies to be trying to sort out this issue.
01:16 And to be fair, it isn't an Atlantic issue.
01:19 It's a council issue,
01:21 'cause it's a council building at the end of the day.
01:24 And that's where we're at.
01:25 We could easily be making 200 to 250 pound a week
01:28 and selling teas, coffees, snacks, sweets, cold drinks
01:33 to the children, to the parents.
01:35 We've got an alcohol license.
01:36 We can't sell our alcohol.
01:38 All our stock is still in there.
01:39 It's all out of date.
01:40 So we've lost on that.
01:42 And I'd say we were making
01:43 between 10 and 12,000 pound a year.
01:46 But that was back then, but now the club's grown.
01:47 We've got some more players.
01:49 So that could potentially be more, but we just don't know.
01:52 They haven't got any facilities.
01:53 They've got a grass field.
01:55 You try telling a three-year-old,
01:56 "Yo, you can't go in there.
01:59 I need the toilet."
02:00 We haven't got any toilets.
02:02 We haven't got any anything
02:04 other than some good quality pitchers.
02:07 We'd just be like any other club.
02:10 We wouldn't have a base.
02:14 And it'd just be like playing on a field.
02:16 And this is for the community.
02:19 It's not just for the club,
02:20 because we welcome anyone to come inside.
02:23 We haven't seen reports,
02:24 but the feedback we're getting from the council
02:26 is that it's clay soil underneath in the back rear quarter
02:31 and the trees over on the railway line side.
02:35 I've sucked the moisture out of the ground
02:38 in the really, really hot weather.
02:39 And the building has dropped slightly.
02:43 I think they've done recently a check
02:46 to see if it's got worse.
02:47 And I think it has.
02:48 I think they've came back and said that it has got worse.
02:50 But obviously we aren't privy to them,
02:52 documents that they've got.
02:54 We can just take it from our contact.
02:55 We keep messaging for at least monthly updates.
02:59 And it gets frustrating.
03:02 And it's frustrating for everybody,
03:05 not just people involved in the club,
03:07 but the parents, the children,
03:09 even the local residents who want to use it.
03:12 Because on a Sunday,
03:13 when we've got two, three games down here,
03:15 we're ranging from 10 o'clock in the morning
03:17 right through to four o'clock in the afternoon.
03:19 So it's open for six hours.
03:21 The people can come in, have a drink,
03:22 have a snack, just sit,
03:25 enjoy watching some football,
03:27 and have some refreshments.
03:28 But we can't offer that anymore.
03:30 So we are, in the eyes of the FA or the league
03:35 or the football association,
03:37 we're a two-star accreditation,
03:39 which means that the facilities we offer
03:41 are more than a standard football club.
03:44 It means we're more a community-based club, in effect.
03:49 But losing the income from there affects us
03:52 because we have children who ask to join
03:56 on a daily, weekly, monthly basis.
03:59 Have you got any space in this team?
04:01 Create new teams.
04:03 But the funds aren't there
04:04 because we're losing all that money
04:06 from the clubhouse being closed.
04:07 To buy equipment, to buy kits,
04:09 we rely heavily more on sponsors
04:11 because we're losing that income.
04:13 But there's not a full amount of sponsors out there
04:17 that can afford to help in the current climate.
04:20 So we want to do it ourselves,
04:22 as much as help from sponsors,
04:25 but at the minute we're solely relying on sponsors
04:27 and donations from parents
04:30 to enable us to buy more equipment,
04:32 to invite more children to play football,
04:34 because that's what it's all about at the end of the day,
04:36 is children getting out, having exercise,
04:39 playing football, having fun, and enjoying themselves.
04:42 But we can't offer that fully at this precise moment.