A new home for football in Powys – and for wildlife

When Welshpool Town FC lost three of its pitches in 2018, it was tough for the popular grassroots club. The land was needed for a new school, leaving a shortage of space for young footballers to train and play.

Now the club has not only found a new home for its junior players, but created a haven for wildlife and the local community alongside the scenic Montgomery Canal.

Club secretary Eva Bredsdorff says: “We found three fields used by sheep, just south of our existing ground in an extremely beautiful area. We secured funding to turn these into pitches, but we decided to leave the surrounding areas for wildlife.”

A place for everyone

The club unveiled the new Wayne Evans Playing Fields in 2023 – not just a football facility, but a place where anyone can come to immerse themselves in nature. The project was made possible by a £65,000 grant from the Cymru Football Foundation.

Eva says: “We also worked with the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust and got a grant from the Landfill Disposals Tax Communities Scheme. This helped us install bird and bat boxes. We’ve put up benches, used by substitutes and spectators when we’ve got a match on. At other times, you can just come, sit and look at nature.

“It’s a really peaceful area, and rich in bird life: we see red kites, buzzards and many other species. We bought strimmers to cut paths, so people can walk through the meadows. I’m pleased to say we allow dogs in, and a local dog trainer uses our pitches a lot. Owners are very welcome as long as they pick up after their dogs.”

Keeping the lights on

Elsewhere, the club is taking steps to run its facilities on renewable energy. With financial help from the Cymru Football Foundation, it installed solar panels on the roof of its changing rooms. These are used to charge batteries, which keeps the power on even when the sun doesn’t shine. 

The next phase is to install energy-efficient LED floodlights on the main pitch. Eva says: “The floodlights we have at the moment cost us £50-£60 every time we switch them on. That adds up to a big expense when we have a lot of games in the evening. We’d like to increase our solar power to go some or all of the way to supplying the lights, which would save energy and money.”

Finding sustainable solutions

The club is now looking into ways of composting kitchen waste from the canteen, as well as grass clippings from the pitches. By sowing wildflowers, volunteers hope to attract more species of butterflies to the land.

There are also plans to install environmentally friendly toilets at the Wayne Evans Playing Fields. Eva hopes to secure funding to buy a self-contained block that can be wheeled into place at the fields, with facilities for disabled people. Powered by solar panels, it will use rainwater for the hand-wash basins, which will then be diverted to flush the toilets.

With the new pitches in action, Welshpool’s junior section is thriving once again. Ten teams now play in local leagues, meaning boys and girls of all age groups can get a game – from under-sixes to under-16s. “We’ve got around 200 junior players at the moment,” says Eva. “We’ve very much wanted to grow the game here, particularly in girls’ football. Now we can!”

Want to know more?

Discover how the Cymru Football Foundation is helping to build stronger, more sustainable community-focused clubs, and check out how Clarbeston Road FC and Cambrian United FC are helping build a greener Wales.