Football club floodlights delayed for second time

The club originally wanted the lights in place on 10 August

The installation of Hereford Football Club's floodlights has hit another delay, two months after they were intended to be built.

A two-week window in the fixture schedule allowed contractors to do the work at the Edgar Street ground.

The project had previously been put on temporary hold due to National Highways needing to approve the new floodlight.

General manager of the club Jamie Griffiths said work was due to commence on Monday but contractors got far as drilling "three holes before they realised they couldn't get deep enough because of the water table".

Construction workers were met with high levels of groundwater following heavy rain hitting parts of Herefordshire last week.

Mr Griffiths said: "The amount of rain that we had and with the table water being so high they just want to make sure that they are future proofing so if we continue to get this wet weather year on year, the foundations will be robust enough to cope with that.

"Work's been delayed but it's still ongoing and hopefully maybe in the next month we'll have the new floodlights."

'Always potential for problems'

The club originally wanted the lights in place for the start of the National League North, on 10 August.

National Highways, which manages the A49 Edgar Street alongside the ground, needed to carry "technical approval process" to give the new lights the go-ahead.

Chris Ammonds, the chairman of the football club, had previously warned that the delays threatened the club’s future, if either the current "enormous, old-fashioned" pylon-mounted lights were to fail mid-season, or if delays prevented the club accessing funding for their replacements.

Mr Griffiths said he remained hopeful despite the setback.

"Whenever you dig down there's always potential for problems and I'm sure we're not the only people that have had to slightly delay works.

"Everyone from the council football foundation has been really supportive."