Station Park: Community benefit from renovated facility

Relied upon by a number of football delivery partners and serving participants across a large surrounding area, Station Park plays a significant role in the local community in Forfar.

With the artificial surface reaching the end of its life, Forfar Community Football Trust sought funding from different avenues as they looked to replace the pitch.

Despite receiving some funds from Forfar Common Good – through Angus Council – the Trust was facing the prospect of having to borrow money to refresh the surface and bring it back up to a standard to be enjoyed by all.

However, they applied for assistance from the Scottish FA Grassroots Pitch and Facilities Fund and were successful in their application, thus receiving £100,000 through the through the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

The fund is designed to help communities get more physically active and targets those areas who want to develop their local area for the benefit of all.

As the Trust were organised and prepared to push the button as soon as the funding arrived, the work was able to be completed in time for the new season, despite the ambitious timeframe.

The renovation work started in the middle of May and was completed by the end of June, with the surface being unveiled before Forfar’s first pre-season friendly of the 2022-23 season against Dunfermline Athletic.

Although, the facility is known for serving men’s team Forfar Athletic, who compete in Scottish League Two, it is used by Forfar Farmington – one of the more prominent names in women’s football - as well as numerous other youth and recreational clubs and groups.

Paul Stephen, director at Forfar Athletic FC, explains the importance of the funding and the different ways in which the community is benefitting from the new surface.

He said: “The pitch is a huge asset. It’s by far the best surface in the town and it’s an important facility, with people travelling from around the area to use it.

“It gets a very heavy use, not just by the Forfar Athletic first-team and Forfar Farmington but also by the Forfar Athletic Community Trust who are the primary user. They delivers men’s and ladies recreational football and walking football.

“They also currently run a ladies FFIT programme (Football Fans in Training) and the men’s programme is due to start in January. 

“We also support Somebody’s Hero men’s mental health group, who have a weekly football activity at Station Park, so it’s fair to say that there is a wide spread of participants who are benefitting from the renovation.

“The Trust would have possibly have had to borrow money as we needed to update the pitch, so the Scottish FA funding through the DCMS was invaluable to us.”