GRAYS Athletic football club chairman Steve Skinner has made an impassioned plea to Thurrock councillors to get behind the club and its continued quest to find a new home in the town.

Mr Skinner spoke to a meeting of the council's 'cleaner, greener and safer overview and scrutiny committee' this week in a bid to inform councillors about the club's ambition and to build bridges in the wake of previous 'misconceptions' about the club presented by councillors.

In February last year officials from Grays Athletic called for an apology from a number of councillors who made derogatory comments about the club in the wake of a failed planning application in which the fan-owned club would have been gifted a stadium of their own.

Comments by some councillors, angered Grays, who felt that slurs were being made against it that were neither accurate, not fair.

At the time, Mr Skinner said: "We are very disappointed with the outcome. Obviously, the decision to refuse the application is a blow for us, however, we also feel that some of the wildly inaccurate comments made by councillors on the committee were damaging to Grays Athletic and our reputation.

"This ultimately painted an unfair picture of the club in front of the other attendees and the large number of people watching the meeting online."

Eighteen months on, the club is making placatory overtures to the council to try and heal the wounds as it seeks a new home much nearer its heartland, possibly on land adjacent to the A1013 near Blackshots.

Grays' former home is much missed by the club's fans who hanker for a return to the town.

At the invitation of the scrutiny committee chair, Blackshots councillor Joy Redsell, Mr Skinner addressed its latest meeting and talked councillors through the history of the club, its relationship with the Grays community and of its aspirations for the future.

He said: "The football club as a whole is 132 years old, it was based in Grays from 1906 to 2010.

"At that point the ground, in Bridge Road, was sold for redevelopment by the owners. The club didn't actually own the ground and didn't receive any money from the proceeds of the sale.

"The section 106 money that was placed by the developers into the arrangement was £511,000 but that was spent on other projects over the years.

"Since that time we've been trying to get another base for the football club. During that period, we've gone to being a 100 per cent fan-owned football club, one of the few that is owned 100 per cent by the supporters.

"The club's owned by 400 people on a one member, one share, one vote arrangement and it's a community benefit society, not for profit, registered and authorised by the financial conduct authority.

"So, it's a very different club to what it was when it was removed from the Bridge Road ground.

Youngsters are very much at the heart of Grays Athletic.

"We run 28 football teams, from aged four. We have youth teams right the way up to under 18, then we have our senior team, our Under 23s, a veterans' team, we have Thurrock Sunday League teams and we have walking football teams, which the oldest team is 65 plus.

"So, we have about 400 footballers within the club.

"From the point of view of getting a new facility, we have had some false dawns in the last 12 years, it's fair to say, but we are trying to look forward rather than back."

Mr Skinner then outlined where the club thought its future would be best served and detailed some discussions held with key local officers.

He continued: "Recently we've had meetings with Sean Nethercott (lead officer for strategic services at the council) and Leigh Nicholson (assistant director - planning, transport & public protection at Thurrock Council) with regards to the local plan and we have gone through the map of the area where we would like to be.

"Ultimately, we feel the club's place is where all the other sporting facilities are in the area, preferably over in the Blackshots, Treetops area of the town but we realise that with the Lower Thames Crossing map there's a lot of pink on that map where National Highways are going to be taking Lane.

"We also know that there's a lot of blue on that map where that land could well be coming back into council ownership once this side of the Lower Thames Crossing project is completed.

"So, we have said to Mr Nethercott and to Mr Nicholson this is where we want to be - in one of these areas either side of A1013, either the Treetops side or the Blackshots side."

Mr Skinner then went on to justify why he, his committee and the fans believed the club merited support from the council, adding: "We know that from our perspective, Thurrock is an under-provided for area for football, we are aware that we could be getting up to 70 per cent funding from the Football Foundation which would come in very useful with building a community football facility.

Grays envisage a new home on this land adjacent to the A1013.

"So that's the position where we are at with our conversations with the council planning officers.

"What we are trying to do as a club is to build better relationships with all of the councillors to make sure there are no misconceptions about our football club in terms of our objectives and our ownership and we are trying to get across how important we are in the community.

"We feel we are well worthy of consideration for having our own piece of land to rebuild the football club and to put it back in the town where it was from 1890.

"I think the key thing for us is that when we are talking to our councillors. I go around the borough visiting clients and I see many leaflets from councillors outlining their objectives for their wards.

"Many of the councillors talk about trying to eliminate anti-social behaviour and we think that sport is one of the best ways of doing that.

"With our 250-300 youth players, we are taking them off the streets and into activities three times a week, two lots of training and a match every single week and we feel that clubs that do that, be it ourselves or any other club in the borough should really be valued.

"The best way to eliminate anti-social behaviour is to give young people something to do, and it also gives us an opportunity to monitor things.

"We have experience of some of our players being targeted with such things as county lines and if you have got good teams of coaches and child welfare officers out there you have got more chance of picking those kind of things up and stopping it at root level.

"So, that's where we are coming from in terms of the football club, it's really trying to garner as much council support as possible; for the councillors to get behind any moves to get us back into the Grays area."

Mr Skinner then went on to point out why he believed it was appropriate to be dealing with the 'cleaner and greener' committee, saying: "From our point of view we feel that the actual committee here is looking at 'cleaner and greener'. We think you can put a community football facility together in a very environmentally friendly way.

"I'd urge you to have a look at Prince's Park in Dartford which is one of the most environmentally friendly stadiums in the UK. It shows you can put a stadium, not necessarily right in the middle of a residential area but you can put a stadium that is environmentally friendly, particularly in the area, over North Grays and make it one that's not going to cause too much of a problem financially and would benefit

"Particularly if you put it down as a 3G pitch which is the trend now because obviously you want to be able to offer that facility on an around the clock basis, which is something that can't be done with grass pitches."

East Thurrock United's fully funded plans for a showcase eco football facility at the Crooked Billet in 2019 were rejected by Thurrock Council.

Winning an eco argument about football stadia with Thurrock Council may prove to be harder than might be anticipated.

Grays are looking for a gift of land that would allow them to fulfil their dreams.

In 2019 neighbouring East Thurrock United, in a bid to secure a sustainable future for the club, offered to buy land from the council at the Crooked Billet Recreation ground and build a showcase £3 million stadium and community facility (see this link) built on entirely green principles.

The project, which featured state-of-the art technology including ground water heat pumps, rainwater harvesting systems and buildings created from entirely sustainable resources was rejected by the council - who also turned a blind eye to many of the integrated community issues now proposed by Grays.

However, Grays press on undaunted in hope of a change of heart by councillors. While they continue to be associated with a potential relocation to Ship lane – a fourth submission for planning permission on the site of the former Thurrock FC Ship Lane ground is in the offing – hope of that, or a return to the town heartland, springs eternal.

Mr Skinner finished off his presentation by saying: "Lastly, really, we know that our club has been mentioned a couple of times in a planning application over at Ship Lane, where a company are looking to put a car pre delivery inspection business and we know that's obviously not been passed through the council.

"That's one of the false dawns and there were previous ones that have not gone through council planning but we are looking forward to trying to work with the council officers and councillors to get a more positive result at some stage going forward."