On 27 December, we put up this post – Tilbury FC vs the planning officers – dealing with the issues Tilbury FC potentially face from Thurrock Council planning officers recommending their application to build a new ground be turned down: Tilbury FC face green belt battle as officers recommend refusal of new stadium plans. The application is due to be discussed at the meeting of the planning committee to be held on Thursday, 7 January.

Planning officers at the council are recommending rejection of the application to build a new ground because they deem it to be ‘intrusive’ and ‘harmful’ to the green belt. Perhaps the planning officers would like to cast their eyes to the south west of where Tilbury FC are currently located and gaze upon the sodding great monolith that’s the Amazon fulfilment centre and the ancillary developments. All built on formerly open land at a scale considerably bigger that the footprint of the proposed new football ground. A scale which any reasonable observer would agree is pretty damn intrusive! You can have a look at the graphic above and draw your own conclusions…

All we hope is that the members of the planning committee see the social benefits of Tilbury FC’s community focused proposal for a new ground. At the time of writing, there’s a week to go to the planning committee. We would urge anyone who cares about Tilbury FC, the community of Tilbury, and the future of non-league football across Thurrock to lobby their councillors to ensure that this application is allowed to go ahead. In these troubled times, it would be a welcome boost to the morale of people in Tilbury to have something positive to look forward to.