Top Peterborough football club submits plans for new clubhouse and increased capacity

Peterborough Sports saw their hopes of promotion from the Southern League Premier Central this season dashed by the FA, despite sitting top of the table, after the governing body announced that results would be expunged due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The announcement ended Sports’ chances of continuing their rapid rise up the non-league pyramid.

But despite the abrupt end to a promising campaign the club are planning for bigger and better things, including improved facilities at the Bee Arena which they will need to meet FA standards should they earn promotion in the future.

Plans submitted to Peterborough City Council for the ground in Lincoln Road, New England, include increasing the number of seats in both seated stands to 250 each, as well as adding additional covered standing for 250 at the far end of the ground to match the Thistlemoor end.

If the application is approved there will also be three additional turnstiles and a medical facility, as well as netting to prevent footballs from entering neighbouring properties.

But the major announcement is plans for a new clubhouse after the current one (the Parkway Sports & Leisure Club) was sold by the Parkway PSL Ltd to Thistlemoor Medical Practice to be used as a car park.

The new clubhouse would be situated where the Eaglesthorpe pitch current sits and would include a hospitality area. The existing academy pitch would need to be turned around to accommodate the new facility.

The proposed decision date by the council on the planning application is June 19, the club said, and if successful it hopes to receive £90,000 of grant funding from the Football Foundation, although it acknowledged that this would “still leave us needing to raise some significant capital of our own”.

The new medical facility would include treatment rooms for players and a first aid room.

Peterborough Sports’ success saw them pick up four trophies at the recent Peterborough Telegraph’s Sports Awards, with manager Jimmy Dean winning Sports Personality of the Year.

He also added the Coach of the Year crown, while star player Dion Sembie-Ferris won the Footballer of the Year prize and Stephen ‘Tommy’ Cooper, the man who laid the foundation for the club’s remarkable rise up the football rankings, collected the Lifetime Achiever award.