Youth football team bids for new home

Honiton's current pitch was ‘temporary’

A Devon town’s popular youth football club is on the cusp of promotion to a brand new location to better cater for its growing membership.

Honiton Town Youth Football Club has been eyeing sites for a new base for years, and its huge efforts are now on the verge of bearing fruit.

A proposal for football pitches, a clubhouse, access and parking has been submitted for land west of Tower Road and East of Cuckoo Down Lane in Honiton.

The plans from the club, which provides coaching, competitive football and
associated activities for young people aged 5 -18, are being recommended for approval by East Devon District Council, whose planning committee will debate the scheme on Tuesday (27 January).

Jon Leisk, who chairs the charity that oversees the club, said the site it currently uses – St Rita’s Fields on Ottery Moor Lane – was a “temporary measure 30 years ago”.

“It’s just a field and there’s no parking or toilets,” he said.

“The club has expanded, and we obviously want to grow further, but the current grounds aren’t suitable for that.

“It’s 400 metres to the nearest point of access, so if we need an ambulance we have to carry a casualty that distance or get an air ambulance, which is totally unsuitable.”

Mr Leisk said active efforts had been ongoing for around a decade to find somewhere to move to, but that has been challenging in a town identified as one that does not have enough outdoor areas for its community – especially flat ones suitable for a football pitch.

While Mr Leisk was pleased to reach the point of a formal plan being put in front of planners, he outlined the huge effort it had taken to get to this point.

“The club is a charity and we have spent around £45,000 to get this planning application in now, so it hasn’t been particularly easy to get to this point,” he said.

“Honiton doesn’t have an abundance of flat land, and when you are building on an area that is part of a National Landscape (the new name for an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty or AONB) that brings with it lots of requirements, including the need for various reports.”

The council is recommending the plan be approved, but that is subject to conditions and the completion of a so-called Section 106 agreement, which usually requires a developer to make a financial contribution to the council.

The report prepared for the planning committee notes thatEast Devon’s playing pitch strategy identified a “significant need” for additional youth pitch provision, as did the Honiton sports pitch strategy in 2017.

“At the time, a site at Tower Hill (which included the current application site) was dismissed on sustainability and costs to develop grounds, and expansion at St Rita’s was identified as the preferred option,” it states.

“There has been no subsequent pitch development at the existing site since that time, and the identified need remains unmet.

“A new playing pitch strategy is being prepared and is due for consultation in early 2026, initial findings indicate that the demand for youth pitches remains and will increase moving forwards.

“It is also noted that there is considerable additional housing development proposed for Honiton in the emerging local plan with no specific provision for new sports pitch provision.”

Mr Leisk said funding had been secured to help create the football pitches on the new site as well as for the construction of the clubhouse.

But he feared that the planning permission could come with the prospect of more reports needing to be commissioned depending on the conditions attached to it, and that cost he predicted could run into thousands, or even tens of thousands.

East Devon’s planning committee will discuss the proposals on Tuesday (27 January).