A GROUP has been set up to oversee the project to build a new community and football facility in Ilminster.

Ilminster Town Council recently agreed to the formation of a project governance group, made up of interested parties, to keep the council in the loop on the project’s progress.

Initially, it will be made up of three representatives of the football club, the Deputy Mayor, the chairman of the open spaces committee and chairman of the resources committee, with the town clerk in a supporting role.

The group can enlist the expertise of advisers such as the Football Association, an architect and South Somerset District Council’s community health and leisure team.

When a project manager and a contractor is confirmed, they too will become members of the group.

The group will initially report to every council meeting on progress, assess actions required to meet planning conditions and make recommendations to the council on how to meet them.

Members have already worked extensively to get the ball rolling on the facility at Britten’s Field, which garnered the town council’s support last year.

At a town council meeting last week, Mayor Cllr Emma Jane Taylor said: “The group will keep the town council up to date with the progress. It has had its first meeting and a few things need to be considered.”

One consideration was a request from Sport England to pay its grant of £75,000 to the town council – which will own the building – rather than to the football club, which would then pass it on to the council.

Town clerk Joy Norris told councillors it was possible the grant would not go forward if the council did not agree and the council had to confirm to Sport England it was offering the club a 25-year lease. The motion was passed with one against and two abstentions.

Members were also told that the football club was proposing a ‘buy a brick’ scheme as one of its many plans to raise funds.

It was also proposed that the current sports club facility – known locally as The Shed – could remain the home of the town’s cricket club and councillors agreed to a offer a new lease ‘in principle’ with details of the lease to be confirmed at an extraordinary meeting of the council at a later date.

Deputy Mayor Cllr Andrew Lawson said: “I would like to see a plan as part of the licence agreement to bring the building up to standard – a lot of people say that it is an eyesore.”

Craig Rice from the cricket club attended the meeting, seeking assurances that a lease would be offered, securing the cricket club’s future.

He told councillors: “The cricket club is at the highest level of sport at that level and we need to be able to sustain that.

“In the last few years we have been a bit in limbo while the sports facilities situation was sorted out but we would be able to invest some money into improving the building.”