Post by Admin on Jan 12, 2022 19:06:18 GMT
Many supporters can't understand how the club has got itself a wonderful new stadium, but the pitch has so many problems. We know the club is working on it and is in dispute with the contractors. As has been said its been less than two years since the pitch was installed but we only got a years warranty on it, so playing half a season on it hardly gave the club a chance to appraise it. Is a one year warranty standard practice ? The buildings must have been regularly inspected by the Council, as is required by law - but who independantly checked the ongoing build of the pitch, particularly the drainage? It should have been someone with the right credentials - and were the FA involved ?
It's been reported the 3G pitch has drainage problems too. But that must be within the warranty surely? Are the contractors using the same excuse and saying we havent been maintaining the 3G properly as well. How can that be - if there are drainage problems it must be the contractors fault for both pitches. The other alternative is what about the water table. If it's high in the area it must have been investigated at the time of planning surely. The River isnt far away.
I wonder if anyone has spoken to local residents/dog walkers/ land owner or renter of the field etc to ask if they ever encountered drainage problems on the whole area before building work began.
All the top soil from the Wyatts site and the Club site was formed into a huge mountain several storeys high. This was on the area occupied now by the penalty area of the river end of the pitch. Has this compaction been responsible for any of the problems ? The drainage problem is certainly worse at that end of the pitch.
I'm assuming there are pipes laid beneath the turf for the drainage not to mention other types of aggregate used. Where is the excess water supposed to go ? Are there drainage pumps involved. Why is the water just laying on the pitch and not going away. I understand that some football pitches at football league clubs have their pitch raised above the general ground level. So would raising the pitch a foot or so [ or whatever increase a drainage expert deemed necessary] enable it to drain better as it would be above the surrounding wet areas/water table. And with , of course , suitable drainage channels built in. All this would have to be done in the summer months, when I assume there are plans to do something then. So in the meantime we have to put up with postponed games until the weather gets better - not to mention loss of revenue especially as re-arranged games will have to be played midweek when crowds are historically lower
Are we able to go to Arbitration ( e.g Court of Arbitration for Sport) instead of going down the conventional legal route ? if we can't agree anything satisfactorily with the contractor(s) What is it exactly have we been doing wrong with maintenance to cause this problem. Who has been responsible for the maintenance of the pitch. Do we have an expert groundsman with relevant qualifications? At one time we heard AFCB were involved - or at least a groundsman from AFCB. I know the old board should have been responsible for checking on what we were getting. Has there been some incompetence here ?
Should alarm bells have started ringing in the summer when the ground was dry, but we had a sudden downpour, and Oxford Utd were training here at the time but were unable to use the pitch as the water wasnt going away ?
I understand we don't actually own the ground but we have it on a 99 year lease. Do the owners [ Local council or Dorset Council ?] have any liability to try and put it right. And the same goes for Wyatts. Normally a new build house has a 10 year warranty. Are we covered by that. Possibly the clubhouse / but what about the pitch. Was any insurance taken out at the time we took it on - presumably there is some sort of Building and Contents insurance ? What exactly is covered ?
I appreciate we have been given information by the new board about it all, and realise it is a sensitive situation so we wont get all the info until such time as an agreement is reached. But it must be frustrating for the new Directors and is extremely frustrating and embarrassing for supporters who understood they were getting a state of the art facility.
So these are my 'ramblings' asking questions we would all like answers to. Random thoughts which continue to go around in my head and I'm sure in many true fans heads. It seems there are not going to be any answers soon - not until the close season anyway and in the words of James Stokoe -".. we will have to plough on in the meantime regardless"
Ben Roberts
It's been reported the 3G pitch has drainage problems too. But that must be within the warranty surely? Are the contractors using the same excuse and saying we havent been maintaining the 3G properly as well. How can that be - if there are drainage problems it must be the contractors fault for both pitches. The other alternative is what about the water table. If it's high in the area it must have been investigated at the time of planning surely. The River isnt far away.
I wonder if anyone has spoken to local residents/dog walkers/ land owner or renter of the field etc to ask if they ever encountered drainage problems on the whole area before building work began.
All the top soil from the Wyatts site and the Club site was formed into a huge mountain several storeys high. This was on the area occupied now by the penalty area of the river end of the pitch. Has this compaction been responsible for any of the problems ? The drainage problem is certainly worse at that end of the pitch.
I'm assuming there are pipes laid beneath the turf for the drainage not to mention other types of aggregate used. Where is the excess water supposed to go ? Are there drainage pumps involved. Why is the water just laying on the pitch and not going away. I understand that some football pitches at football league clubs have their pitch raised above the general ground level. So would raising the pitch a foot or so [ or whatever increase a drainage expert deemed necessary] enable it to drain better as it would be above the surrounding wet areas/water table. And with , of course , suitable drainage channels built in. All this would have to be done in the summer months, when I assume there are plans to do something then. So in the meantime we have to put up with postponed games until the weather gets better - not to mention loss of revenue especially as re-arranged games will have to be played midweek when crowds are historically lower
Are we able to go to Arbitration ( e.g Court of Arbitration for Sport) instead of going down the conventional legal route ? if we can't agree anything satisfactorily with the contractor(s) What is it exactly have we been doing wrong with maintenance to cause this problem. Who has been responsible for the maintenance of the pitch. Do we have an expert groundsman with relevant qualifications? At one time we heard AFCB were involved - or at least a groundsman from AFCB. I know the old board should have been responsible for checking on what we were getting. Has there been some incompetence here ?
Should alarm bells have started ringing in the summer when the ground was dry, but we had a sudden downpour, and Oxford Utd were training here at the time but were unable to use the pitch as the water wasnt going away ?
I understand we don't actually own the ground but we have it on a 99 year lease. Do the owners [ Local council or Dorset Council ?] have any liability to try and put it right. And the same goes for Wyatts. Normally a new build house has a 10 year warranty. Are we covered by that. Possibly the clubhouse / but what about the pitch. Was any insurance taken out at the time we took it on - presumably there is some sort of Building and Contents insurance ? What exactly is covered ?
I appreciate we have been given information by the new board about it all, and realise it is a sensitive situation so we wont get all the info until such time as an agreement is reached. But it must be frustrating for the new Directors and is extremely frustrating and embarrassing for supporters who understood they were getting a state of the art facility.
So these are my 'ramblings' asking questions we would all like answers to. Random thoughts which continue to go around in my head and I'm sure in many true fans heads. It seems there are not going to be any answers soon - not until the close season anyway and in the words of James Stokoe -".. we will have to plough on in the meantime regardless"
Ben Roberts
