FA gives £70,000 grant for Harpenden Town Football clubhouse revamp

It has been described as looking like an “inner-city slum” after being struck by vandals so many times that fed-up club members bricked up the windows.

But now a clubhouse used by a football team based in the heart of Harpenden for 120 years is to get a major makeover – just reward for years of hard slog to raise the funds needed.

Harpenden Town Football Club’s vandal-hit clubhouse will be transformed after the Football Association agreed to back refurbishment plans with a £70,000 grant in addition to funds raised by members and supporters.

Announcing the FA funding this week, club chairman Roman Motyczak labelled the grant as “a huge vote of confidence in the way Harpenden’s football club is progressing”.

Over the past few years the Herts Advertiser has carried stories on how repeated vandalism has blighted the clubhouse, based at Rothamsted Park, with a former town councillor, Tony McFarland, describing it as looking like an inner-city slum.

The trigger for the FA cash was a deal with St Albans district council last month signing a new 15-year lease on Harpenden Town’s grounds.

New facilities include a café to share with the local community, re-sited changing rooms with new showers, a new entrance and extensive roof repairs.

Roman paid tribute to those members “who have been part of setting this [funding] up, and committee members who have helped keep the club running”.

He added: “We want to make Rothamsted the home of football in the town and by sharing our facilities, kids, parents and senior players alike will benefit. But equally important is that the whole community can share the space.”

The work is to be completed before the new season starts in August, with the building contract going out for final tender next week.