Felixstowe and Walton United could move ground

Community leaders in Felixstowe have serious doubts about moving the resort’s leading football club to an edge-of-town stadium – but have agreed to explore the proposals.

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Suffolk Coastal’s cabinet voted to work with the town’s cricket, football and rugby clubs on a project to create three “sports hubs”.

It will mean Dellwood Avenue sports ground would become a cricket hub, the Coronation Sports Ground would be for rugby, while Felixstowe and Walton United would move from its Goldstar Ground in Dellwood Avenue to the 35-acre Eastward Ho! outdoor sports complex.

Felixstowe councillor Andy Smith believed the best option was not Eastward Ho!, but the land where the new £20 million Felixstowe Academy is to be built and felt this should be looked at further.

“A football stadium would require stands, high fencing, iron railings, floodlights and so on, and whether that can be properly sited at Eastward Ho! creates massive questions,” he said.

“The only way to keep the open views we should have across that open land would be to have substantial earth moving and put the stadium on the lower ground next to The Grove, but The Grove is supposed to be tranquillity personified.”

Mayor of Felixstowe, Doreen Savage, said: “I am not sure Eastward Ho! is the right place for football in all its glory, but I am prepared to see what happens.”

The council says the club needs to move if it is to expand and work towards its dream of playing at a higher level.

The club is due to hold a meeting tonight to discuss the issue and members of Suffolk Coastal District Council have been invited to attend.

What do you think? Write to Your Letters, Ipswich Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or you can send an e-mail to us at starletters@archant.co.uk