Guy Ritchie was guest of honour to formally open Shaftesbury’s new state of the art artificial 3G football pitch on Friday evening, Aug 6th. After the opening ceremony to celebrate, Guy pulled the first pint of ‘Gritchie’ in the club house, which is now stocking the local beer.

This £500k third generation pitch is a collaborative project between Shaftesbury Football Club and Shaftesbury Town Council which was completed on time and under budget.

The new pitch is a game charger for sport in the town as in addition to hosting +150 youngsters weekly and all of the football club’s 4/5 competitive teams, it is also available for anyone to hire for sport. An artificial pitch has much greater flexibility and durability, allowing for continual back-to-back use compared to the one game a week the old grass pitch could host. Plans for starting a walking football club and a BTEC registered football academy providing post-16 vocational education are already being worked up to take advantage of this stunning new facility.

The loan taken out to build this new facility will be paid back from the income of a new permit holders car park currently being constructed adjacent to the football pitch. While future replacement and maintenance costs will be covered by the fees of hiring the facility. Ensuring this facility that will be available for generations to come and didn’t require any taxpayer funding.

The location of the new pitch, in the centre of Shaftesbury, means that youngsters will no longer need to travel out of town by car for training, instead being within walking distance for the majority of users making it accessible for all.

Cllr Piers Brown was one of several councillors present for launch and commented “After months of hard work it’s amazing to see this fantastic pitch being used and bringing sport right to the heart of Shaftesbury for the first time. Shaftesbury’s sporting facilities are now the envy of Dorset, a massive thank you to everybody who worked with and supported the Town Council and the Football Club to make this dream come true”.

So this year, for Shaftesbury, football really has come home.

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For further information contact Shaftesbury Town Council, Tel: 01747 852420 or email: enquiries@shaftesbury-tc.gov.uk