Forum aims to raise the bar

THE Oldham Football Forum is up and running and looking to drive much-needed and long overdue improvements in facilities and standards across the borough.

Linked with the FA’s national football strategy, the forum will meet bi-monthly with top officials from the recently formed Oldham Local Area Plan, which includes the FA, Oldham Council, Oldham Community Leisure and the Oldham Athletic FC Community Trust.

Tuesday night’s first meeting, held at Oldham Athletic, saw 40-plus discuss the way forward for the forum, its possible structure, and some of the hot topics that surround local sport.

Colin Bridgford, Manchester FA’s county development manager, chaired the meeting and called on the clubs of Oldham to get involved with the Football Forum to get things moving in the borough.

“As a national pilot scheme, Oldham can really move its football forward and while there are still some negative comments — which I fully understand — the more enlightened realise that this Forum is Oldham’s big chance to make a difference,” said Colin.

And Colin insisted that it would not just be a talking shop but that there would be real answers to tough questions and that all would be working together to achieve real improvements.

Ian Hughes, Oldham Council’s director of Business Development, told the meeting that a study was currently being carried out on the future for Clayton Playing Fields to see what could be achieved.

Club delegates heard that it could be anything from basic new dressing rooms to something more akin to the splendid Salford Soccer Village and that the time scale was months rather than years.

Representatives from the New Deals for the Communities also created a buzz at the meeting when they revealed their plans — on-going and soon to go for final approval to the NDC board — for a new community facility including one full-size and ten mini-soccer 3G pitches at Fitton Hill.

Other issues that were touched on and will be dealt with on future agendas included:

::Working partnerships with other sports like cricket and rugby league;

::Coach education, its cost and availability, and the need for more coach educators within Oldham.

::The financial power of the Building Schools for the Future project that will have major community use of sporting facilities.

::Cutting the spiralling cost of pitch hire and training facilities.

::A new Oldham Football Forum website to give clubs the chance to discuss issues.

::A sporting database of club contacts to allow clubs to work closer together.

::Workshops relating to the FA’s Respect campaign and small grant applications.

The next meeting of the Forum will be held in the Chronicle Corner Flag Suite, at Boundary Park (Broadway side) on Tuesday, November 3 (6.30pm). All welcome.