I am a resident of Bannerbrook hoping to help raise funds and the spirits of the team running the Massey Ferguson Sports Ground due to recent events.

We are lucky on the Bannerbrook estate and the wider community of Eastern Green and Tile Hill plus surrounding areas to have the wonderful facilities at the Massey Ferguson Sports Ground.

This ground is used and enjoyed by many people including both children and adults for football and cricket training and matches. Also the wider community for access to the farmers fields leading to Berkswell for dog walkers, runners and families out exploring.

The ground is maintained to a very high standard and a lot of time, love, effort and money goes into every detail at the ground from the maintenance of the clubhouse to cutting the grass. This is all done by people giving up their own time to volunteer at the club.

As some of you are now aware on Wednesday 29th July at approx 10pm a group of the travelling community broke an entry into the Massey Ferguson sports ground and setup an illegal camp. This all came just days before the news was announced training could commence from 1st August, after the long break from sports Covid-19 has brought for the teams. This was a massive blow for the managers and children as they were so looking forward to getting some kind of normal back.

This has already incurred costs of replacing and improving the lock and the club are having security bollards installed to prevent further occurances of the field being accessed at an approx cost of £1500.

As the club is private ground not Council owned the owners also have to pay for an enforcement team to come in and remove the travellers as unfortunately the promises made for leaving dates have come and gone. This is an hourly rate so could mount up and impossible to give exact figures as no one knows how long the travellers will take to leave and how peaceful they will go but worst case scenario could be in the region of £3k.

Then there will be the bill for environmental health as they will have to be brought in to ensure a full and thorough cleanup takes place so we can all begin to enjoy this facility again once the travellers have left.

Anything you are able to give would massively help the club, or even if you could please share this amongst your friends and family that would be appreciated.

Lets help to get this team back up and running and show what a great community we are part of.

Thanks for reading this far and for your support.