Gala Wilton launch ambitious plans to build a brighter future

Gloucester-based football club Gala Wilton FC last week posted on social media seeking quotations for six new floodlight masts at their ground.

Former player Jon Clay has been dealing with all the planning applications for the project.

“We’ve called it ‘Building a brighter future at Gala Wilton’," he said.

“We started probably about four years ago now. Me and the committee members made a plan and an application to Gloucester City Council to install six new floodlights, hard standing around the pitch and a new 50-seater stand.”

Clay explained how the current facilities stopped the team from gaining promotion.

“When I was in the men’s first team, we were in the Gloucestershire County League, and then I managed with somebody else when I stopped playing," he said.

“We were a very good team; at times we were top of the County League and going for promotion.

“But it was quite evident that our ground wouldn’t enable that; we don’t have the facilities to go up to what is step six in the football pyramid (Hellenic League).”

The club have been working behind the scenes to get the funding for this project, and Clay believes they might have found a grant which could help.

“We’ve been busy in the background over the last few years, fundraising and doing lots of voluntary things at the club," he said.

“We’ve raised over £10,000, I would say, just by doing various bits led by the committee.

“But we’ve identified a kind of grant application that we could make, and we are eligible to make, and we’re aiming to do that in and around December time.

“Which is why we put the social post out to get various quotes from people in a competitive way.”

There is no guarantee the grant application will be approved, and even if it were, it is still set to be a very expensive project for the club.

“We’re up against lots of other applications, but even if we did get the grant, which would be amazing, I think we will probably still be maybe a little short in terms of where we need to be because it’s very expensive to install floodlights," Clay said.

“You’re talking tens of thousands of pounds, probably anything I think between £50,000 and £70,000.”

Clay has called on local businesses to get involved in the club and has outlined an exciting vision should the club be able to get the floodlights installed.

“It would be great if there’s anyone else in the local community, local businesses, that would want to be part of our project and support us.

“We’re trying to establish something that is kind of like once in a generation at Gala.

“We’ve got plans next season to further bolster the youth section, which includes potentially our first-ever women's team.

“We’re really trying our best to kind of build from the bottom up to a really sustainable club, and then hopefully that will flow through to all of our men’s and women's teams.”

The football club also share the site with the Gala Community Hub, and Clay highlighted the number of opportunities having floodlights installed would bring.

“I’m sure if we get floodlights, there will be opportunities for other teams to use it here and there," he said.

“It just opens up so much potential for the site itself because we share it with the Gala Community Hub, which is like a social hub.

“So you know it goes hand in hand: the more people that play football and go to the site, the more people then go to the club afterwards.”