Our Campaign to
Save The Camrose
Basingstoke Town Community Football Club is launching a campaign to Save The Camrose.
The Camrose stadium was the home of the football club for over 70 years until it was evicted by its former owner and Chairman, Rafi Razzak, to make way for housing, leaving the club without a home of its own.
Basingstoke Town Community Football Club, now run by the community, is fighting back.
With support from every person reading this, we can put ourselves in the best position to win the battle to help bring the club back to its rightful home and develop it in to a hub for the community, whilst creating a movement to ensure this doesn’t happen to other clubs in the future.
Too many clubs have suffered this same fate; the time for this to stop is now.
The Camrose Story
So Far...
- Formed in 1896, Basingstoke Town FC is a 126 year old football club.
- The club had played at The Camrose for over 70 years.
- The historic Camrose ground was gifted to the football club by local benefactor Viscount Camrose with a lease to 2053 with a covenant restricting use to ‘football or a sports ground’.
- The Camrose has had no investment from its land owners, including the Council, with the majority of necessary works being carried out voluntarily by fans.
- In 2016, whilst Rafi Razzak was Chairman and owner of the football club, the freehold of The Camrose land was purchased by Basron Developments, also owned by Rafi Razzak. Basingstoke Council still own almost a third of The Camrose site.
- Razzak as the new owner of the majority of the land, evicted the newly formed Community Club from The Camrose in April 2019 whilst forcing the club into an uneconomic ground share at Winchester City FC, 20 miles away and had stepped down as Chairman of the football club. To this day, Razzak still owns 'Basingstoke Town Ltd' which has no football club attached to it - not to be confused with the new 'Basingstoke Town Community Football Club Ltd' the name of the football club.
- Among the Community Club and the Council, funding was used to upgrade Hampshire FA's Winklebury Football Complex to allow the newly formed Community Club to return to play football in the town, at it's current level.
- Since October 2020 the Community Club has been renting the shared Hampshire FA ground at Winklebury Football Complex in Basingstoke which provides a short-term lifeline which does not currently sufficiently replace The Camrose for a number of reasons including but not limited to: cannot reach same FA ground grading as The Camrose, smaller site footprint, fewer commercial income opportunities, no full-use of facility, management of site, no Clubhouse, free-use of site etc..
- Meanwhile, The Camrose Stadium across the town is currently unused, vandalised and left to rot by ex-Chairman Rafi Razzak.
- In September 2020, Rafi Razzak’s planning permission for housing redevelopment at The Camrose was refused unanimously by Basingstoke Council on the grounds that the development did not meet the fundamental points in the Council's Local Plan, Policy CN8 and the stadium has not been sufficiently replaced.
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In January 2021, the Community Club formed the 'Save The Camrose Committee'. An active group to fight to return to The Camrose, to ensure the Community Club has a suitable home of its own to support it's:
Men's Team
Women's Team
Full Time 16-19's Academy Programme
Boy's Youth Teams Under 9's-Under 18's (over 200 players)
Girls Youth Team
Community Football Programme
Walking Football Programme
Disability Football Programme
School's Football Programme - Later in January 2021, Basingstoke Council approved the club’s application to list the Camrose as an Asset of Community Value, noting its potential.
- In March 2021 - Basron Developments appealed both the Asset of Community Value listing and also appealed the Planning Permission rejection.
- June 2021 - The Save The Camrose Committee enlisted a team of specialist legal representatives to ensure that the listing of The Camrose as an Asset of Community Value (ACV) was to be upheld.
- June 2021 - The Save The Camrose Committee's Feasibility Study was delivered to key members of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council which outlined why the community sports hub is needed, what type of facilities are being proposed, the cost of these improvements, funding options, the sustainability of the community sports hub and why Basingstoke Town Community Football Club are best placed to deliver the site over the short- and the long-term. Councilor feedback was positive which demonstrated how the club's ambitions could be brought to fruition.
- November 2021 - The Save The Camrose Committee and its legal representatives successfully requested that the Planning Permission rejection appeal should be held as a public enquiry which would allow the club and interested others to act as a 'Rule 6' party at the hearing which will grant the club and its legal representatives the ability to submit evidence and cross-reference evidence from Basron Developments separately to the Council's own defence.
- January 2022 - The Save The Camrose Committee and its legal representatives have submitted our final evidence regarding the upholding of The Camrose as an Asset of Community Value. We expect a decision around the end of February 2022.
- January 2022 - The Save The Camrose Committee and its legal representatives continue to gather evidence to support the claim that replacement facilities have not been sufficiently replaced and therefore the proposed development by Basron would be contrary to both the National Planning Policy Framework and Policy CN8 of the Local Plan which will be used at The Planning Permission public enquiry - to be held for 2 or 3 days in March 2022.
Campaign
Objectives
1
Redevelopment
To fight to regain our land and redevelop The Camrose to become a sports hub as a home for the football club and to benefit of the community as a whole.
2
Funding
To raise vital funding to ensure the club are in the best position to return to its home.
3
Partnerships
To develop healthy working partnerships with Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, Sport England, Football Foundation, the FA, local clubs and the community to bring The Camrose back to life.
4
Objection
To actively speak up and object to any appeal or further plans to redevelop the land while it is still owned by the former Chairman Rafi Razzak.
5
Protection
To achieve stronger protection and regulation to ensure other sports club don’t suffer the same plight.
The Camrose Campaign
Ways To Support Us
The Football Community
We are looking for support on this campaign not just locally, but nationally, because this battle is on behalf of everyone who loves the beautiful game and wants to fight against these injustices.
We’d love to hear from you if the club you love has been through similar ordeals and stories of how you’ve fought your corner to overcome it.
Please tweet us @Basingstoke_FC or comment on the ‘Save The Camrose Campaign’ post on our Facebook Page with your stories and messages of support and we’ll actively engage in open discussions.
Fundraising
As a lot of people have already enquired about making donations directly to the Save The Camrose campaign, Basingstoke Town Supporters Club have kindly started a donation page on Justgiving to kick-start our efforts.
Details on our own fundraising plans will be revealed in due course.
