Melksham Town FC is thrilled to announce that we have agreed to ground share with Westbury United FC at the Oakfield Stadium. As close County neighbours and friends, we were more than happy to step in and support them in their time of need. 🤝
We will be hosting 4 games at the Oakfield Stadium starting on Bank Holiday Monday, with further games on Sat 2nd Sep, Sat 9th Sep and Tuesday 26th Sep. If Westbury United requires further help and assistance with fixtures our club is committed to helping them until they can move back to their own ground⚽️🖤💛
Let's show our solidarity and support for Westbury United during this transitional period. Together, we can make a difference! 🙌 #FootballCommunity #StrongerTogether
Statement from Westbury United
We have recently been made aware by the Football Association and the Southern League, that due to the dimensions of our current changing rooms we can no longer hold anymore home fixtures at Platinum Hyundai Park.
We were aware that our changing rooms needed to be made bigger in order to meet the standard of league criteria, however, we thought that we would have more time to rectify this and so this news came as a shock to us all.
In order to compete at step 4 certain requirements must be met, and although we have made enormous strides off the pitch to comply with the rules and requirements of the Southern League. The home and away changing rooms need improvement, they need to go from 16 square metres to 18 square meters, and the officials changing room needs to go from 4 square meters to 6 square meters. Although this may sound straight forward, it’s not quite that simple, especially financially.
The future of the club has weighed very heavy on our shoulders this past week. But in saying that, there has been lots of positive meetings with everybody involved pulling together to ensure we continue our Southern League status. So, as a short term solution we will be supplying the officials with a portacabin, which falls in line with the leagues criteria and is due to arrive hopefully by the middle/end of September. One of our supporters, Jim Pickernell, has kindly offered his services to make adjustments to our current changing rooms, by knocking through the officials changing room in order to achieve the league criteria of 18 square meters for both the home and the away teams. A massive thank you to Jim, again it shows the importance of supporters and volunteers in non-league football. We’d like to personally thank both the FA and the Southern League for their co-operation and support in dealing with this matter.
So, you will all be thinking, what do we do for now and where will we play our next four home fixtures?
Having heard the seriousness of the matter above, Melksham Town Football Club have come to Westbury United’s aid and have offered the club a lifeline to remain in the Southern League. We are extremely grateful to the Melksham board and especially to our friend, Darren Perrin (chairman), who has gone above and beyond in the last 10 days to ensure Westbury United Football Club can continue its step 4 status. Darren reached out when he heard the news and acted very swiftly to offer us a helping hand, by very kindly offering us the Oakfield Stadium facility to play our next three league matches, and more if we needed.
We can’t thank Darren, the board and Melksham as a community enough for their generosity and support. We will forever be grateful to them for their kindness and approach in helping us through this difficult time.
The FA Trophy game on September 9th against Bemerton Heath Harlequins, will now also take place at the Oakfield Stadium, home of Melksham Town. This fixture could have taken place at Platinum Hyundai Park, but with the changing rooms under construction that week. Darren has kindly offered us the facilities of the Oakfield Stadium.
Our plans that were submitted to the league with regards to the building work on the existing changing rooms are still in place, and we hope to get this work started on before the start of next season.
Lastly, we’d like to say a massive thank you to our sponsors and supporters for their continued support, help and understanding in this matter. #StrongerTogether
Games now scheduled to be played at the Oakfield Stadium:
Melksham Town FC - 28/08/23
Malvern Town FC - 02/09/23
Bemerton Heath (FA trophy) - 09/09/23
Wimborne Town FC - 28/09/23
