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 currently celebrating its 125th anniversary.
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 next to no investment from its land owners, 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.
Razzak as the new owner of the majority of the land then evicted the club from The Camrose in 2019 whilst forcing the club into an uneconomic ground share at Winchester City FC, 20 miles away and had stepped down as Chairman.
The club is currently renting the shared Hampshire FA ground at Winklebury Football Complex in Basingstoke which provides a short-term lifeline.
Meanwhile, The Camrose stadium across the town is currently unused, vandalised and left to rot.
In September 2020 ex-Chairman Rafi Razzak’s planning permission for housing redevelopment at The Camrose was refused.
In January 2021, Basingstoke Council approved the club’s application to list the Camrose as an Asset of Community Value, noting its potential.
With nearly a third of The Camrose still owned by Basingstoke Council, we believe it’s the perfect place to redevelop to create a community Sports Hub for the benefit of the community, local youth, local clubs, nearby schools, local residents of all backgrounds, as well as the club’s permanent home.
We await a reply from ex-Chairman Rafi Razzak to open dialogue with the club to discuss our aspirations but we do not believe this to be forthcoming.
Now, as a community run football club based democratically on one member, one vote, we have set up a new committee to campaign to Save the Camrose.

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.

Funding

To raise vital funding to ensure the club are in the best position to return to its home.

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.

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.

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

Current actions you can do now to support the campaign:

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.

Camrose Memories

Do you have a particular match or moment at The Camrose that brings back a great memory? Do you remember The Camrose from the early days? Have you had a special family moment at The Camrose?

We’re looking for people who want to share what The Camrose means to them and the clips will be used throughout the Save The Camrose campaign. Please get in touch with jack.miller@btfc.co.uk to get involved.

Local Elections

For Basingstoke residents, with local elections on May 6th 2021 in mind, we call on you to write to your local councillor(s) for their views on the Save the Camrose Campaign and its plans to bring the club back home.

The club will be seeking responses from Councillors individually ourselves but the more people who ask, the more support we can show for the campaign.

You can find your local councillors and their respective addresses/email addresses on the basingstoke.gov.uk website.

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.

Our Campaign toSave The Camrose