Kenilworth Wardens '˜delighted' with Castle Farm move approval

The club, which has thriving football and cricket sections, will begin agreeing terms to relocate from its current site in Thickthorn after Warwick District Council’s executive approved the move last week.

Wardens had wanted to expand the club for a while after the amount of junior members playing both sports kept on increasing.

A spokesman for Kenilworth Wardens said: “We as a club are working with the district council and other parties to put on a very fine scheme for the town.

“We’re obviously delighted to local authority looks on the scheme as favourably as we do.”

In a document, Wardens outlined the likely details of the move subject to agreeing the terms with the district council.

It stated an extra 17.7 acres of land will be purchased from the adjoining farm by the club, which would more than double the amount of playing space.

Wardens will be granted exclusive use of the Castle Farm recreation centre for an unspecified number of hours a week.

The field closest to the recreation centre, known as ‘Field One’ in the plans, will be retained for the public and will be managed by Wardens on behalf of the district council, although the club will not be responsible for the skate park, boules area or the children’s play area.

The field to the west of that, ‘Field Two’, will become part of Wardens’ new sports facility, along with the new land further to the west and northwest, known as ‘Field Three’.

Field Two is currently owned by the district council, who will lease the land to Wardens on a peppercorn rent. Wardens will pay the council a one-off fee to improve the sports facilities at Castle Farm recreation centre.

An agreement is being reached between Wardens and the owner of Field Three on whether to permanently purchase or rent the land.

Should everything go as planned, Fields Two and Three will be levelled and two cricket squares will be made, along with a smaller third square in Field One.

There will be two to three senior football pitches, including a 3G pitch, and six to eight junior pitches.

A two-storey clubhouse will also be built, which will incorporate a viewing balcony and a function room.

A road from the current entrance to Castle Farm to Fields Two and Three would need to be built, but planning permission would need to be granted.

Wardens’ old site is earmarked for new housing in the district’s Local Plan after it was released from the green belt.