Tydd Football Club asks parish councillors to allow reserve team to play in Tydd St Mary
A football club is hoping to play more of its matches in Tydd St Mary when the use of the village playing field is reviewed next month.
Tydd Football Club has written to parish councillors to ask if its second (reserve) team could play home matches in the Peterborough and District Football League at the Glebe Field in Rectory Road.
An agreement between the council, the football club and Tydd St Mary Playing Field Association was reached in August, which allowed Tydd's first team to return to the village after a two-year absence when home matches were played in either Tydd St Giles or Wisbech.
During a virtual meeting on Thursday, parish councillors were told about a letter from football club secretary Carl Wilson who spoke of the club's desire "to get more people playing and enjoying football" in Tydd St Mary.
Speaking to the Lincolnshire Free Press on Friday, Mr Wilson said: "We've got an agreement with the parish council for the first team to play at the Glebe Field, while our reserves have been playing in Tydd St Giles.
"But we're trying to get back to a situation where we can play football in the village again because, as far as the club is concerned, we're based there.
"We have a much better parish council, more affable and approachable, so I can't see anything going wrong moving forward.
"But we want to take it and get the reserves playing in Tydd St Mary, but not ruin the pitch."
Next month's review of the agreement could also consider an offer from the football club to install a new, second football pitch at the Glebe Field to avoid overuse of the current one.
During Thursday's meeting, Coun Richard Bowser said: "The football club is probably right to approach the parish council first to see if the terms of the agreement are still good.
"The important thing to remember around football is overuse of the pitch, so the idea of having a second pitch available is a good thing.
"This time round, the relationship between the parish council, football club and playing field committee is a little bit better.
"We seem to have a relatively clear line of communication, but I think it's very important that the parish council, playing field committee and football club all know exactly where each one stands in terms of their responsibilities, who to contact and what the next steps are.
"Probably the most important consideration is that we're still at the beginning of the working relationship and all sides need to treat each other with due respect.
"We'll do all we can to get football up and running, we just need to be open and honest about it because that's what caused so much friction before."
. Options to refurbish Tydd St Mary village sign
Students and businesses could be offered the chance to improve the look of Tydd St Mary's village sign.
During Thursday's meeting, parish councillors were told that the estimated cost of refurbishing the sign professionally would be £3,125.
Coun Annette Magnus, parish council chairman, said: "I don't think we could justify spending that amount of money on a village sign.
"As nice as it would be to have a statement piece, I do think we need to go down another line and, hopefully, there are other options we could consider.
"I like the idea of using somebody local, such as an arts student at university who would like to take the project on."
However, the council is planning to apply for grant funding to buy a new interactive speed sign worth about £3,050 to be used in Tydd St Mary and Tydd Gote.
It comes after complaints about speeding on Station Road, Tydd Gote, where a recent survey found that 59.5 per cent of vehicles were ignoring the 30mph speed limit.
