Community football club in Derbyshire left ‘saddened’ after vandals hit their facilities

Bakewell Town FC, which play at the town’s recreation ground, saw their dug-outs damaged over the weekend by vandals, who also left the site covered in litter.

In a statement published to their social media, a club spokesperson said: “We as a club are so saddened that our dug-outs have been further damaged over recent weeks, leaving them unusable and doused in litter.

“Our main aim is to bring football opportunities to the town and surrounding villages and without facilities this becomes harder.

“Usually we would repair damage like this, but after repeated damage we find ourselves asking, ‘what’s the point’. As a community, what more can we do?”

Dave Cottrell is the junior chairman at the club. After taking on the role two and a half years ago, he said that Bakewell Town have seen a huge rise in both children and adults wanting to represent them.

“When I started this role, we were a sleepy club with around 80 kids and barely any coaches. Now, we’ve merged the junior and senior clubs so there’s a seamless pathway for young players. We’ve got around 300 players in the club from five-year-olds to walking football, and everything in between,” he said.

“Two years ago, we had two girls in the programme- we now have 56 girls, and 20 ladies playing in our women’s team. We also run after-school clubs and football camps during school holidays.

“We’ve created it to be inclusive and diverse, for there to be no barriers to football, and it is very much a community club- we want young people to come and join us.”

While there was disappointment around the club that their facilities had been damaged again, Dave said that he hoped to use this as an opportunity to work with the young people responsible for the vandalism.

He added: “The football club has a really important part to play, not only in giving the young people something to do, but protecting those who love the tranquility of Bakewell by giving young people a place to let off steam under adult supervision.

“We want to get the kids who did this in and engage them, involve them with the club. The last time we had our dug-outs vandalised, it was by a kid who was given £20 a night by his Grandma and told to walk the streets till 10pm- we don’t know where the parents were.

“We’d like to have a proper chat with the kids involved and see if they regret what they’ve done. Even if they’re not sporty, we can ask if they want to get involved with the club in some way- there’s plenty of jobs they can do that will help give them some self-worth.

“I’m not saying we can change the world, but we can certainly be part of the solution and not part of the problem by turning our backs on these kids.”