Villagers rally round to save Theale playing field

The parish council rents its North Street playing field from Englefield Estate. However, owing to changes to government regulations, under which the council’s tax base was reduced by about 40 per cent because of the large number of singly-occupied homes, and a reduction in the number of sport teams paying to use it, this could come to an abrupt end.
Because of the tax-base reduction, the parish council has had to increase its council tax, although it is not spending any more than in the previous year.
And, although the Government gave a grant to West Berkshire Council this year to mitigate the revenue loss, there is no indication that this grant will be given in future years.
The playing field contains three football pitches but could accommodate at least one more.
However, in recent years it has seen the number of Theale Tigers teams using the field drop to three, which has also meant a decrease in revenue from people using the field.
Therefore, the district councillor for Theale, Alan Macro (Lib Dem), said that the council was having to look to its future funding.
At meeting held last week in Theale to explain to residents what the situation was, and what could be done to try and resolve it, the parish council gave villagers ideas as to how money could be saved.
These included holding beer festivals there and allowing men’s teams to play on the field to increase revenue. Villagers said that they would be willing to take part in litter picks and volunteer to cut the grass, even do without a Christmas light display, in order to save parish council funds.
Following the meeting, Mr Macro said that the field was important because of its value recreationally, and also, as a green space on the edge of the village, there was concern about what would happen to it if they let it go.
He said: “I was pleasantly surprised that a lot of the things people said were positive – they were looking at ways to solve the issue rather than complaining. It’s a value resource and lots of people do use it.”
Another meeting is to be scheduled for futher discussion but, in the meantime, anyone wishing to put forward an idea can do so on the Facebook page at