Gloucestershire sports pitches to reopen after Oxstalls closure

Clubs and facilities are due to to return at a sports park which shut down after its provider collapsed.

Gloucester City Council are working with the University of Gloucestershire to reopen pitches at Oxstalls Sports Park on a phased return.

Aspire had run Gloucester City Council's leisure services for 15 years before going into liquidation.

The next few weeks will see services gradually return until a new provider is appointed to take over.

The Aspire Sports and Cultural Trust announced at the end of September 2023 that it could no longer run services after struggling with financial pressures.

Gloucestershire City Council has since been working with their partners to contact local sporting organisations to help them access facilities.

"Like everyone else, the news that Aspire Sports and Cultural Trust had gone into liquidation came as a huge shock," said Matt Tansley, the Director of Sport and Wellbeing at University of Gloucestershire.

"The university takes seriously its commitment to supporting community wellbeing, and as such, we have moved quickly with Gloucester City Council to re-open our arena and other facilities at Oxstalls and Plock Court for community use."

From Monday, 16 October, the University of Gloucestershire is set to return the arena and its pitches to normal opening hours.

Although the arena had quickly reopened for teaching and training, as well as matches for students and schools, it has since been closed to the public.

Now the university is now able to honour existing bookings at the arena, and its 3G football and 4G rugby pitches, after putting in place additional staffing and arrangements.

The council's 2G and 3G pitches are now open for pre-booked matches, with rugby, football and hockey games all taking place.

The parkrun is also set to return to Oxstalls this weekend, with grass pitch bookings for adult and youth football clubs already resumed.

Councillor Andy Lewis, cabinet member for culture and leisure at Gloucester City Council, said: "We've been working flat out over the last two weeks alongside our partners and talking to local clubs to see how quickly we can get them back in for matches and training.

"Our key priority is now finding a new provider to take on the services and opening the facilities as soon as possible so that the public can return."

Follow BBC West on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [email protected]