Ebbw Vale football club celebrates as partnership housing developer installs accessibility pathway

Hilltop Stadium grounds have been made more accessible to the community with the installation of a new pathway, thanks to a local housebuilder.

RTB Ebbw Vale Football Club – which was formed in 1951, and hosts matches and training for senior and junior teams at the stadium – reached out to local housing developer Lovell to seek assistance with increasing the accessibility of the stadium’s playing field.

Lovell, which has recently constructed and sold all homes at its Golwg Y Bryn development in partnership with Melin Homes and Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council, agreed to fund and build the pathway earlier this year, transforming the outer pitch by installing a concreted footpath within just a week.

The pathway now runs along the perimeter of the stadium’s field, enabling people with disabilities to access the full field, and providing a sustainable area for visitors who no longer have to stand on the field itself to spectate.

The stadium’s pitch is used by local football and rugby clubs, and schools such as Willowtown Community Primary School for sporting purposes. The field is also used as a space for community events, with a capacity to hold up to 1,000 people at any one time.

Chairman of RTB Ebbw Vale Football Club, Grant Matthews, said: “We are very grateful to Lovell for their hard work and generosity which has not only helped our club, but the wider local community too.

“The pathway has already made a massive positive impact on our club, and it is a great improvement to our facility which has enabled us to open the club up further to the community – something we are very passionate about.

“As a proud non-profit football club, we always strive to help the community. With our latest project we have recently raised money for two defibrillators, and we are currently fundraising for outdoor cabinets to place them in so that the whole community can access them.”

Gemma Clissett, regional partnerships director at Lovell, said: “It is our duty as a responsible housing developer to support the communities in which we build our new homes.

“As recent signatories of the Placemaking Wales Charter, our goal is to put people at the heart of all we do, and by incorporating placemaking into our work, we aim to promote happiness, health and well-being, providing Wales with homes that are full of character and creating a place which people can feel proud to call home.

“RTB Ebbw Vale Football Club is a fantastic club, which is doing excellent things for the people of Ebbw Vale – whether that is promoting the physical and mental wellbeing of local people, or fundraising with key projects to help others within the community – so we were delighted to be able to help and show our support with constructing the footpath to benefit both players and visitors alike.”

RTB Ebbw Vale Football Club has recently been awarded the 2021 Gwent ‘Community Club of the Year’ in the FAW/McDonald’s Grassroots Football Awards, which has enabled the club to be entered into the finals for ‘National Community Club of the Year’.

Earlier this year, Lovell achieved a five-star rating with the Home Builders Federation, and was awarded gold for its customer service with In-house Research – with 93 per cent of Lovell customers saying they would recommend the housebuilder to family and friends.

For more information on RTB Ebbw Vale Football Club, or to make a donation towards their defibrillator cabinets, visit https://www.rtbebbwvalefc.com/

More information on the new homes being built by Lovell across South Wales can be found at https://www.lovell.co.uk/#find-my-lovell-home