Birtley Town Football Club is delighted to announce that The Hoops have applied for planning permission to extend our car park at The Arrowmark Home Improvements Stadium.
As part of the FA’s Home Advantage Programme, Birtley Town FC are delighted to have formally submitted planning permission to extend and double the size of our existing car park. The Hoops were accepted onto the programme in May 2025 and made an official announcement in October 2025. Since that date, we have been working tirelessly with Muckle LLP, Gateshead Council and The Football Foundation to agree a 35 year lease on the playing fields at Birtley Sports Complex. As part of the programme the club will be able to access a capital grant to improve the site.
With 46 junior teams and 3 senior sides, The Hoops are now the biggest grassroots football club in the Gateshead District. The additional growth has placed a strain on access, parking, pitch availability and facilities with busy matchday and training evenings seeing members parking on adjacent roads. Working alongside locally based firm The Home Engineers, we have worked through the design, logistics and planning for an extension to the current car park. The project will see security fencing improved at certain parts of the ground and a designated pedestrian walkway that allows safe access to both Senior and Junior pitches.
BTFC Juniors Chairman Paul Beat: “As a club we’ve been very aware of the impact our continued growth in our community could have, and the plans we have in place here hopefully goes to show how much we care about the relationships we build outside of the club as well. With the plan to also develop a flexible pitch format across our club and to better cater for the new format across grassroots football, these developments are integral. We hope that all of the work going on in the background show our members how ambitious we are to continue to improve the facilities for all of the children and their families across the club.”
BTFC Senior Chairman Scott Brown: “It’s taken the best part of five years for us to be in a position where we can access this level of funding support from The Football Foundation. The work we have done alongside Gateshead Council, Durham FA & The Football Foundation allows us to be investment ready for large-scale capital projects. It’s exciting times for the club.”
“This project will allow more supporters and members to park within the ground on training evenings and weekends. It will reduce the impact on local businesses. The pedestrian walkway will mean all fixtures and events will be accessible for all of our supporters/members and it will also ensure access is a lot safer for our junior players and their families. To be honest, when we first discussed what we wanted from the site and taking the whole club to the next level, a bigger car park wasn’t top of our wish list but with the growth of the club in recent years it’s become very important. We have more exciting plans for the next couple of years but without tackling our access and parking issue, those plans would have no realistic chance of coming to fruition.”
“I would like to thank Neil from The Home Engineers for his work on leading on our planning application alongside their continued sponsorship of the club. I would also like to thank Steve Cowell and Ian Wade for their support and time in ensuring we have reached this stage. We would like to thank our local councillors, both past and present, who have helped us liaise and progress our negotiations with Gateshead Council. Lastly I’d like to thank the continued support of Durham FA, Gateshead Council and The Football Foundation.”
The club will hope to update our members on the outcome of this application and provide an update regarding the long-term asset transfer of the site before the end of 2026.
