Southam United Could Get Council Grant to Finish Its Clubhouse

Updated 2 November: the Cabinet has approved the grant.

Southam United Football Club could receive up to £250,000 from Stratford-on-Avon District Council to finish its clubhouse, whose first floor was never properly fitted out. The council’s Cabinet will decide on Monday 2 November at 10am, and the report to councillors recommends the grant, with conditions.

The money would come from the council’s Business Rates Equalisation Reserve, which stands at £9.8m, the report says.

What’s wrong with the Southam United clubhouse

The clubhouse at Bobby Hancocks Park came out of a 2014 planning permission that replaced the football and bowls clubs’ old facilities alongside 236 homes by Bloor Homes. The building reached practical completion, but the first floor has no heating, kitchen or toilets, no internal walls apart from around the stairs, and mostly bare block walls.

That floor was designed for community use and a bar to earn money for the club. A temporary bar now brings in some income, but the space can’t be let out for safeguarding and safety reasons. Finishing it is estimated to cost about £350,000. The report expects other grants, from sources such as the Football Foundation, Biffa and the HS2 community fund, to fall short by around £250,000.

Why the club needs help

Southam United was founded in 1905. Its senior team folded in February 2025 while bottom of its league, and the company then running the first team was dissolved that August. A new volunteer committee now runs the club, which has 19 teams from under-5s to seniors and an estimated 150 players. It has inherited utility debts from the site’s previous operations, which it is paying off, and final accounts for its latest period have yet to be produced.

Planned growth is part of the context: the draft South Warwickshire Local Plan allocates 3,122 homes east of Southam.

The conditions on the grant

Before any money is paid, the club would have to:

• work through a development review with the Birmingham FA and carry out its findings
• produce a business plan and completed accounts
• apply for other grants; if those raise more than £100,000, the council’s share falls
• provide costed estimates, with payment in stages
• show it has the right to occupy the land, with Southam’s town clerk joining the ground’s trustees

Cabinet’s other option is to refuse. The meeting is at Elizabeth House in Stratford and streamed on the council’s YouTube channel. The rest of the agenda is in our Cabinet preview, and we’ll report the decision.

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Alex Harrington

Alex Harrington grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon and runs What's up, Stratford? as an independent guide to the town.