Council accused over delays at football club run by SPOTY winner

Mike Alden won the Unsung Hero Award at the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year in December

A football club run by a BBC Sports Personality of the Year winner has been left without proper changing rooms for three years, a council has been told.

Park Knowle FC said it "desperately needs" better facilities in Redcatch Park and has blamed the delays on Bristol City Council.

The club is coached by Mike Alden, who won the Unsung Hero Award in December.

Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees said the team dealing with the issue had faced short-staffing due to financial pressures.

Knowle councillor Gary Hopkins called on the mayor to apologise to the community club.

Mr Rees explained that the council had since recruited to the team but admitted that its "backroom capacity" had been challenged by the current financial situation affecting the country.

"But the capacity is there now so hopefully people will get the communications that they were looking for," he added.

Mr Alden has run the club for the past decade in an entirely voluntary capacity

Disabled football coach Mr Alden was diagnosed with brittle bone disease aged four, and has broken nearly every bone in his body.

Despite this he has run the club in a voluntary capacity for the past decade.

Mr Rees congratulated Mr Alden on winning the award, but was urged to apologise to him and the club for "the mess" the council has left them in, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Mr Rees said there were capacity issues in the department dealing with the application

Sian Ellis-Thomas, chair of Friends of Redcatch Park, told a Bristol City Council meeting in December that the club "desperately needs better facilities in Redcatch Park to accommodate the disability and girls' teams".

To update the facilities, the club and Redcatch Community Garden jointly applied to the council for a community asset transfer (CAT).

CATs involve transferring the care for buildings from councils, who no longer have money or staff to look after them properly, to local volunteers or groups.

But this has not happened and the "application has hit a wall", she said.

Mr Hopkins said the current changing rooms were sub-standard

Mr Hopkins said the current pavilion is "basically a large wooden shed" and the changing rooms are sub-standard.

Mr Rees replied that the transfer had taken so long because other groups had also applied to take it over.

Mr Hopkins disputed this and said it was "not in good faith to invent somebody new".

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"No doubt you will want to join us in congratulating [the coach] for what he's achieved so far, but will you also apologise for this mess that's left them without changing rooms for three years?" he added.

The mayor did not deny he had "invented" another group, but added the delays were due to short-staffing in the council which had since been addressed.

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