Ambitious plans are afoot to transform an area of green space in Callander into playing fields and clubhouse by two community sports groups.
Callander Thistle FC and Callander Cricket Club are currently in negotiations to jointly purchase a plot of land in the town to be used by both organisations as their home base under the aspiring plans.
Both clubs have joined forces to create the Trossachs and Teith Community Sport and Social Hub charity last year. Now, the groups are hoping to finalise a deal for the purchase of land owned by Drummond Estate, next to the Camp Place play park.
With negotiations over the purchase at an “advanced stage”, the group hope that the deal could lead to the facilities that would be set up there becoming a sporting and social hub in the town.
Under that plans, the group hope to create a football pitch, a cricket pitch and a clubhouse, including a function facility and changing room facilities.
However, the Hub has reiterated that the deal to purchase the plot has yet to be completed.
In their statement issued last week, they said: “We have been made aware of discussions happening on social media platforms surrounding the Drummond Estate field next to Camp Place play park and felt it only right that in order to prevent rumour and conjecture around this land that we issue a brief statement.
“We can confirm that it is ourselves that are in negotiations with Drummond Estate to purchase this plot of land.
“Over the last 12 months the football club and cricket club have been working closely together, creating a new joint legal structure with charitable status. With now over 250 participants and volunteers between both clubs, covering children, youths and adults, this development will ensure our continued growth within the community.
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“Although one of the main purposes is to provide both clubs with a home in Callander, we would like to assure the community that it is also about preserving and improving our green space, as well as providing additional, well maintained community and recreational space in the town.
Speaking to the Observer this week, David Mclean of Callander Thistle said: “We have got some facilities, we’ve got the [McLaren] leisure centre that has Astroturf, which is fine, it’s a good facility. But in order, from a football point of view, to get to the next level we really want to have our own pavilion, our own pitch and our own control.
“The Astroturf serves the whole community. We have a Wednesday night, we can get a little use on a Monday and we have Saturday’s practically to ourselves from 11.30am, which is great and to most clubs is enough. Now, we want to grow our youth system that we started about two and a half years ago. We had about 20 kids when we started and we now have about 130. We do all primary school age groups as well as S1.
“It would be our own place – not just a changing facility, it’d also be a hall and function area and somewhere to really let the club kick on and grow.
“For too long, Callander hasn’t had a good enough supply of football and cricket.”
Barry McGeachy, from Callander Cricket Club, said: “We’ve always been nomadic. We’ve ground shared with Stirling County and Gargunnock Cricket Club in the past.
“We’ve always had to move around and we’re still working on our ground share at the moment for this year. It looks like we’ll be in Falkirk for some of it.”
Mr McGeachy added that club membership numbers fell as a result of the Covid pandemic and the club not having its own pitch to facility games.
He said: “We peaked before Covid, with just under 80 members. Covid has had a profound effect on the club and this really highlighted the fact that we need a ground, we need a home facility because where other clubs, when we first returned to activity in the back-end of 2020, had their own grounds and got back to playing, we couldn’t because you weren’t allowed to ground share at that point. We lost players to other clubs because they could go and play cricket when they couldn’t in Callander so we’ve been reduced to just below 60 members now.”
Mr Mclean added: “You need your own control. The leisure centre is a brilliant facility, but the centre has to facilitate the whole community, it can’t be shown to have favouritism to one sport over the others. We need that control that you only really get from owning your own facility.
“Even when we get the land, in the next few years we might look at extending it.”
Further information on the plans will be detailed in due course.
