Belfast Council snubs Glentoran Football Club pitch pleas and ends preferential use of public facility at Blanchflower Stadium

Elected representatives at a City Hall committee unanimously agreed to end a preferential use agreement with Glentoran Football Club at Blanchflower Playing Fields, to be replaced by a model allowing 11 community football clubs as well as Glentoran equal access to the pitch.

There was a strained atmosphere at the council’s People and Communities Committee last week as the Alliance Party appeared to attempt a delay to the decision to allow Glentoran to address the committee at a future date.

None of the other parties agreed and the request for a deputation by Glentoran was refused.

Alliance further proposed a workshop looking at data collection from Glentoran and other teams. This again was rejected by the other parties.

The two-year preferential use agreement with Glentoran for the use of the second synthetic pitch at Blanchflower Playing Fields expired on December 1 last year.

A council report states: “Outside the time slots allocated to Glentoran the facility is very popular and continues to be fully booked from 6pm to 10pm Monday to Thursday by a wide range of youth and senior teams. On Friday evenings along with Saturday mornings and on Sunday the pitch is booked by South Belfast Youth League.

“The council has been approached by several local, community based clubs who are unable to gain access to the pitch. There are a number of options for the council to consider regarding the future booking arrangements for this pitch.”

The three options before elected representatives were firstly to renew the preferential use agreement with Glentoran Football Club, secondly to process all pitch bookings on a first-come, first-served basis, or thirdly to work with local community based football clubs to develop an allocation model so that they all get access to the pitch on Monday to Thursday evenings. Council officers recommended option three.

However Alliance Councillor Jenna Maghie proposed that a request by Glentoran Football to address the committee should be approved before a final decision was made.

She said: “The report makes it sound like it is the football club using the pitch, and when you think about Glentoran you think about the men’s football club playing semi-professional football etcetera. In reality, it is their academy and their women’s team who use it – quite a lot.”

DUP Councillor Nicola Verner said: “I think whenever we are putting it forward that we come to an agreement on fairness and equity that there would have to be others that come in to present as well. So that we can hear what it means to them to have fair usage.”

Sinn Féin Councillor Micheal Donnelly said: “Option three allows all local clubs and the likes of Glentoran to come in and be part of that conversation. That is the fairest model, instead of just bringing Glentoran in. Not everyone is going to get what they want. Provision is causing difficulty across all of the city.”

Green Councillor Anthony Flynn said: “I don’t understand why we would want to just talk to Glentoran – that doesn’t make any sense to me whatsoever. Option three does everything we want in terms of ensuring that all clubs are included in this.

“I don’t see why we should have a further workshop – that work is clearly done. Let’s put this to bed please.”

​