Stratford District Council's Cabinet decides on Monday whether to give Southam United up to £250,000 to finish a clubhouse with a top floor never fitted out.

Stratford-on-Avon District Council’s Cabinet will decide on Monday 2 November whether to give Southam United Football Club up to £250,000 to finish its clubhouse at Bobby Hancocks Park, where the first-floor function room has stood unfinished since the building was handed over.

Sir Jeremy Wright, the MP for Kenilworth and Southam, has called the meeting a “now or never moment” for the club and is urging the Cabinet to approve the money. The council’s own report warns that if the club folds, Southam would be left with “a significant deficit in playing pitches”.

The floor that was never finished

The clubhouse was built by Bloor Homes as part of a 2013 planning application, made jointly by the football club, Southam United Bowls Club and the developer, to demolish the old stadium and bowls facilities, provide new pitches and buildings, and build 236 homes. Stratford’s Planning Committee approved it on 6 August 2014, and the move was governed by a private agreement between the club and Bloor Homes set out in the section 106 agreement attached to the permission.

According to the council report, the building reached practical completion but its first floor was never fitted out. It lists:

  • no heating on the first floor
  • no internal walls upstairs apart from the stair enclosure
  • no kitchen or toilets on the first floor
  • walls that are, in the main, bare block

The MP’s office adds gaps in the windows to that list. The upstairs was meant to be the club’s earner: the report says it “was designed predominantly for community and bar use to generate an income to sustain the club”. A temporary bar now brings in some money, but because it cannot be secured separately, the function area “cannot be let for safeguarding/health and safety reasons”. The council estimates the work needed at about £350,000.

What the MP says

Sir Jeremy says he has spent months working with the club’s chair, Wayne Stevenson, Councillor Angela John and Town Clerk Debbie Carro of Southam Town Council, in talks with district council officers and Bloor Homes “to unravel issues with historic agreements”.

“It’s a now or never moment for Stratford District Council’s Cabinet members and I welcome the financial proposal that will be put before them next week and I urge them to do the right thing,” he said.

“After months of behind the scenes work by the club’s dedicated volunteer team, Cllr John and Town Clerk Debbie Carro and I to engage with Council officers and Bloor homes to solve these critical issues, it’s good to see the Council’s Cabinet finally recognising the serious implications for the club’s future if urgent support isn’t offered and is now considering a financial package before the final whistle is blown.”

He added: “It’s hard to be sure what went wrong in the past, but I am more interested in what happens to ensure that the lights are kept on at Southam United. We now need the function room to be brought up to the standard required to be the community asset it was always meant to be urgently. If it is not, the club may not survive the winter and its potential to serve both the club and community, along with providing a sporting facility for the area as a whole, will cease.”

A club rebuilding itself

The report, by the council’s chief executive David Buckland, is frank about how hard the last two years have been. Southam United was founded in 1905. In February 2025 its senior team folded while bottom of Hellenic League Division One, and the company then running first-team football was dissolved on 19 August 2025. A new volunteer committee now runs the club as an unincorporated members’ club, and has inherited utility debts from the previous operation that it is paying off. The report says committee members “have all invested both time and their own resources to attempt to keep the club running”.

The club still runs 19 teams, from under-5s to seniors, with an estimated 150 players. The council’s Playing Pitch Strategy found demand for another 10 teams over the next three to five years. There is one girls’ team plus regular girls-only sessions, and the club hopes to offer more for girls and for disabled players.

The conditions on the money

The recommendation is a grant of up to £250,000 from the council’s Business Rates Equalisation Reserve, which the report says stands at £9.8m. It would come with conditions, including:

  • the club working with the Birmingham FA on its Club Development Review and acting on the findings
  • a detailed business plan and completed accounts for the latest accounting period
  • applications to other funders, among them the Football Foundation, the Howdens Game Changer programme, Biffa Award and the HS2 Community and Environment Fund, with help from Warwickshire CAVA
  • costed estimates for the work, so the grant can be paid in stages
  • proof, from the title deeds, that the club has the right to occupy the land held by its trustees
  • the Southam Town Clerk joining three committee members as the four trustees of Bobby Hancocks Park

If outside grants come to more than £100,000, the council’s contribution would fall accordingly. The only other option before the Cabinet is to refuse the request.

The Cabinet meets at 10am on Monday 2 November. The report, Future of Southam United Football Club, is published with the meeting agenda on the council’s website.