I know a couple of people were asking about the progress earlier in the season - can you believe we are a quarter of the way through the league!!!! - Walker Central Seniors have now got Charter Status which should go some way in helping with bids. The planning department is out tomorrow at 10am along with Local Councillors, Brian Clarke the club founder, Alan Gate Club Secretary and the builders. Plans are now drawn for floodlights and Kicks Leisure are providing the funding match to access the first grant.

The Northern League are coming out after Tony Golightly comes off holiday to offer an advisory visit. The idea is if we are up there at the end of the season that hopefully we can met the 31st March deadline. Phase one is to have the pitch floodlights to be installed, a hardstanding area to meet NL requirements and a stand that is similiar if not identical to Team Northumbria basically meet the league requirements. Phase Two is to develop the smaller "training/Junior" pitch and to have that turned into a floodlight 3G for mini soccer and for training facilities for the seniors. Phase three is to extend the clubhouse to add further facilities. Phase One will be required by 31st March which we are comfortable about. Phase two will be March 2011 and Phase 3 by Dec 2012.

The hard thing if moving up the pyramid will be temporarily leaving the Northern Alliance because the support in the way of advice is always exceptional however, we hope our second string sitting second top of the Tyneside Amateur League Div 1 may move into the 2nd division of the Northern Alliance to continue our presence in the league.

great stuff mick, best of luck mate

it will be great if we get another local team to watch in the northern league.

Good luck to all at Walker, cannot question your ambition.

Well just to give you some feedback from the initial planning/site meeting with the Planning Officer. We are all on a high as it went very well. We meet the Northern League when Tony Golightly gets back from hol in late Sept. On the 8th October we have the big meeting with all concerned ie Highways, Planning, Councillors. Public consultation will be in November though from feedback that is looking positive. IF and I mean IF we meet the timetable of having everything ready by Xmas and we have the plans etc all done then its all down to our guy from Entec to get us through planning. It will mean we would know by the first couple of weeks in February leaving 6 weeks to have everything done by the 31st March. Whilst it is tight it is in no way unachievable though we have to also do well in the league but at least the ground would be ready.

Best of luck to Walker Central with their plans. I do remember there being some talk about Walker moving to the Lightfoot Stadium, did this all fall through or was it never a starter?

Hi Cestrian, there was talk but I think that is all it was. The local authority I believe have wanted a private company like at Complete Football to come in and develop something along those lines. I actually looked at it myself about 6 months ago but when you looked at what would be required it was a definate loss in my opinion. The fact it is still not sold possibly tell you something but my guess and it is a calculated one from what i hear maybe Shepherd Offshore will buy it.

Very positive news and it might be worth asking the Northern League committee about leeway on dates as i believe Gilford Park got until late July to get their lights sorted with relevant plans and permission in place, and Newton Aycliffe have had dispensation for some Hardstanding and a suitable stand which as yet is not sorted.

Personally think if clubs are doing this right with proper plans etc like Gilford Park and Newton Aycliffe did then giving a bit of leeway is the right way of doing things and would make your plans a little less tight timewise as these things have a habit of not always running to time.

Good to hear another ambitious club in the area looking to move up.

Just another tip but the Alliance dont allow 'Reserve' teams, so as long as their not called Walker Central reserves i'm sure the Alliance would welcome the continuity.

Hi Ressly Pest

Thanks for that I had spoken to someone who said that everything had been done at those clubs ie Gilford Park had done absolutely eveything I believe even had the lights simply ready to into the ground and were told as long as they are ready for the season it was no problem. I also have as a matter of principle spoke to the Northern Alliance to keep them informed they also said there was no Reserve team but an "A" team is acceptable. It seems strange the rule not allowing a reserve team but there must be some genuine reason.

Today we had the Planning Department out again along with the Highways Department and Leisure Services. Myself and Entec our architechs were there and it is looking very good all potential minor issues have been discussed and everything was so positive it may mean we hit our deadlines early. We have the Northern League out on Saturday so fingers crossed all goes well there. If it does I expect the application to be submitted end of this month early November though we are, in the next two weeks, going to do a pre consultation with local residents.

Have you had any ground inspection done by the Northern League and if so how did it go-was it positive?

How did your advisory visit go with some of the Management Committee -Michael

Hi Barleymow to be honest very positive, it appears the pitch would be one of the biggest, the facilities and club house were acceptable though we have to relocate the official changing room but no big deal. The proposed stand and standing area was fine, they did feel the clubhouse for toilet facilities and hotr drinks etc was too far away so we have put a proposal to put a toilet block (portaloo) and a "cabin" to serve the drinks.

The only issue I believe is a small public footpath that requires blocked off to allow players onto and off the pitch, where it is proposed will mean the players come onto the pitch from the corner flag rather than the middle ie Man U. Now the highways, planning department and local authority and councillors were happy with a retractable tunnel or something similiar however, the four representatives said they could not comment on behalf of the committee which is fair enough but I have say hand on heart they were really positive and I believe are keen to get new teams in but - and I agree on this point - they have set the standards for the Northern League and they do not wish to drop those standards which to be fair is a fair comment. I was happy enough with the visit to lay out the £3800 + Vat to get the consultation underway which by the way means the plans are available for inspection on Thursday 28th October 2009 from 2pm - 8pm and Saturday 31st October 2009 from 10am - 2pm at the club house. I believe the only obstacle could be the footpath which is a public footpath BUT the planning department and highways who would be the main people to oppose feel this should not be an issue to put in a temporary restriction (possibly the wrong word) to allow access and exit from the ground and they would be happy. So to be fair I'm busy designing the invites to the consultation days and getting them distributed and of course printed. Once that is done the big work starts!

Just a quick update, we are one week ahead of our timescale. We find out in mid Feb regarding a decision on our planning application but its looking really favourable with the planners. We have an agreement -as we don't need planning for these - footpath improved all around the pitch, portaloo toilet facilities and beginning on the training/minisoccer pitches to be turned into 3G or next Generation pitches. This should be done fairly soon. The senior pitch is going to be worked on as soon as the season ends which at this rate will be Aug! It will be dug up in parts to ensure it hopefully is as flat as it can be and the whole pitch resown. I am giving a copy of our application to the Northern Alliance Management Committee so if we are successful it can be used as a guide for other clubs - and hopefully save you a few quid plus a realisation on what is required - of course the company I got in has copywrited the application but it would give a real idea of what is neded plus it will save you money and time.

Finally we have our official letter for planning permission which has taken longer than the process of pulling the application together and doing all the consultation, after being told unofficially we had to wait about 5 weeks to get the letter signed but its done. We have our inspection on the 3rd April and we have to go some now though everything is in hand. Of course we need to keep where we are in the league which hopefully can be done though its looking not great at the minute.