Hi All

Thank you for your patience with the adjusted training and match schedules over the past few months.

There is good news and not so good news on the new pitch front.

The good news is that both pitches are finished, FA accredited and ready for use. These new pitches are now being used to host BFC Youth home games on a Sunday. We are very grateful to the main club for their investment and hard work in getting these pitches built and ready to play on.

The bad news is that their has been further delays and issues with the floodlight applications which affects evening training. The current situation is that the smaller pitch (pitch 3 as we now call it) cannot be used in the evening, but pitch 4 (new 11 aside) now has 6 temporary floodlights and is going to be used from next week to host evening training.

We have passed on any training venue/timing changes to managers and they in turn will cascade down to parents and players. We have tried to ensure that training nights stay the same, unless a manager has requested a change.

A couple of notes regarding the new pitches:

1. Please NEVER drive down the lane towards the pitches, just park in the normal car park and walk (there are now bollard lights all the way down to the pitches).
2. There are 6 generator powered floodlights sat just outside the pitch cage and so there is some extra noise and some fumes in these areas. We have tested the playing area on 3 occasions and are satisfied that they are safe, but if anyone notices any children having any breathing issues or complaining of the fumes then please alert one of the committee immediately. This is particularly important for any child who may already have a respiratory issues such as Asthma etc.
3. There are no high level lights outside of the pitches so please take extra care especially with younger siblings. Please ensure they are supervised at all times.
4. The lights should be on by 4:45pm each day and should stay on until the pitches are vacated. If the lights are not on please do not walk down the lane until they are switched on.
5. Please be aware that with more pitches at the same venue, there will inevitably be parking issues on busy evenings, so allow extra time and consider using the Nuffield car park (which has a 2 hour time limit I think).

I will provide further updates in due course but hopefully some light (excuse the pun) at the end of the tunnel now.

Steve VC