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STepford Football centre

A Message From Our CEO On The Future Approach To Stepford Football Centre.

I want to share an important update on the future approach to Stepford Road Football Centre.

We have begun early conversations about the future custodianship of Stepford Road Football Centre. In the period following the pandemic, Stepford was closed to the public with no plans to reopen and its long term future uncertain. Working in partnership with Glasgow City Council and Glasgow Life, we offered to step in and save the centre and take on the management and operation of the football centre. We successfully reopened the centre to enable the community to access this precious facility.

Since then, FARE has secured over £1.6 million of investment for Stepford. This resulted in refreshing the main 11 a side synthetic pitch and installing additional synthetic pitches to ensure more people can participate in football. We have taken our role as custodian seriously, acting as steward and community anchor for Stepford. This has enabled improvements to facilities, accessibility and use, supporting thousands of visitors and a wide range of teams, schools and partner organisations from across the East End. It has resulted in more people playing football more often and local people securing jobs with FARE to operate the facility.

We have recently undertaken a full organisational strategic review, reflecting growing levels of community need, increasing pressure on funding and rising demand for our core work around poverty, employability, education and wellbeing. That review reaffirmed our core purpose. To prioritise and uplift those who need it most and to ensure that organisational focus and resources are aligned as effectively as possible to meet both existing and emerging needs in under resourced communities.

As a result of this review, we have concluded that having fulfilled the stewardship role and saving Stepford Road Football Centre, Stepford is now well positioned for its next phase under new custodianship.

Councillor Ruairi Kelly, City Convenor for Housing, Development Built Heritage and Land Use for Glasgow City Council said:

“We are grateful to FARE Scotland for stepping in when the future of Stepford was uncertain and providing strong stewardship at a critical time. Their leadership helped stabilise and improve the park, ensuring it remained a valued community asset. We will continue to engage with FARE on the future use of Stepford.”

We will ensure that any transition is carefully planned, with a structured consultation and partner process focused on long term sustainability, continuity of use and ongoing community benefit. I want to stress that FARE remains fully committed to Easterhouse and the wider East End and to ensuring Stepford continues to thrive as a community asset for current and future generations.

Peter Costello

Chief Executive Officer, FARE Scotland

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