Out-stand-ing!

Waterloo Rovers Football Club’s ambitious plans to join the higher echelons of Welsh football have been soundly backed by Welshpool Town Council.

At last night’s Operations & Development Committee meeting, club stalwart Dave Proctor had written to the local authority seeking their initial support for a new stand and floodlights at their Maesydre home to enable them to move into the third tier of Welsh football, should they win promotion.

The club came in for warm praise from councillors who backed the club for their ambition with committee chair, Cllr Phil Pritchard, saying “they can’t go up unless they have these in place, so they deserve our backing”.

The club needs to boost its seating capacity and revealed what their new stand would look like, showing that it would be created from an old shipping container that was mobile (pictured).

Cllr Pritchard was concerned that the club may face issues over placing floodlights next to the bypass, but Phil Rollinson, from the Town Council’s Operations Team who was at the meeting, said he was also an ex-Rovers player and explained that new technology meant this was now possible.

The club is also seeking a 10-year lease so that they can apply for grants, and Town Clerk Richard Williams was given the go ahead to open talks with the club.

Waterloo Rovers currently sit in fifth place in the table, but with games in hand on the clubs above them, they have a serious chance of securing one of the two promotion places.

Meanwhile, Cllr Nick Howells added that it was important to work closely with the town’s rugby club who were desperate to “bring their facilities into the 21^st century with a 99-year lease to carry out ground improvements”.

“There is no disabled access and very few facilities for women and children so we need to get this sorted,” he said.

Mr Williams explained that he had already held an initial meeting with the rugby club and it would be added to the next agenda for March.