Brickfields Planning Application Submitted

The club is delighted to announce that the planning application to develop the under-utilised Brickfields site in Devonport has now been submitted to Plymouth City Council.

The plans will see the wholesale redevelopment of Brickfields to provide an exciting range of community and sport facilities including new grass and all-weather 3G pitches, Play Zones exclusively for public use, better access, public areas, and parking.

This follows the conclusion of our month-long consultation which has taken place during September and October and culminated in our open engagement event at Brickfields on Tuesday, 26 September.

The project team would like to thank everyone who attended the event or filled out a questionnaire on our website during the consultation. We were pleased to have over 70 people attend to hear about the proposals and provide such positive feedback, with many more submitting similar views via our questionnaire.

We have reviewed all the feedback we have received, both verbally and through the questionnaire, and where possible have incorporated this into our designs.

Proposals include:

• An improved suite of playing pitches including three grass football pitches, and replacing an existing grass rugby training pitch with a new 3G pitch
• A new purpose-built Academy building, including classrooms for scholars, office space for Academy staff, changing rooms, a gym, and a parents’ lounge 
• A new, floodlit 3G football pitch to replace a poor condition (currently closed) hockey pitch  
• A new, covered 3G football pitch
• Conversion of the existing 60m x 40m rubber crumb pitch to two Play Zones exclusively for public use
• Better site access, public realm and parking
• Opening up the site for community paths

The site will also become the permanent home of the Argyle Women’s first-team.

This project is not just about finding a home for our Academy, though. The partnership with Plymouth City Council, Plymouth Albion RFC, DCLL and other grass-roots sports clubs will see Argyle further its community status with the development of a new community hub on the site, operated by the Argyle Community Trust.

Earlier this year, Argyle Community Trust brought forward plans for a new community hub on the site designed to provide access, support, and equipment to reduce health inequalities, promote wellbeing, and become a beacon for local community activity provision

Argyle Community Trust has developed a vision which considers the feedback and consultation of key stakeholders and the communities within Devonport and Stonehouse with the aim of developing an awe-inspiring, inspirational new community hub.

As part of the plans, Argyle will provide an £11m investment towards the project, with £7.26m coming from Argyle Community Trust and £2.75m from Plymouth City Council.

Plymouth Argyle Chief Executive Andrew Parkinson said: “Bringing this project to planning application submission stage is down to the hard work and dedication of all the stakeholders involved in this project, which I’d like to personally thank them all for.

“This is a huge milestone in the club’s history, and hot off the press following the announcement of our new mission and five-year plan which we shared last week. The prospect of a permanent home for our academy is vital if we want to attract, retain and develop the region’s best young talent.

“I’d also like to thank our supporters and the local community who have been incredibly engaging throughout the consultation process which has enabled us to ensure the voices of everyone has been heard.

“The proposal will also provide significant benefit for the Devonport community, allowing the Argyle Community Trust to use redeveloped facilities to manage a thriving community hub, providing members of the public with access, support, and equipment to reduce health inequalities and promote wellbeing.”

With the redevelopment of the Community Hub already under way, and due to be open in Spring/Summer 2024 – construction for the wider site is planned to begin in Spring 2024. We expect the first set of new pitches to be available for use in September that year, with all construction completed and the site fully operational by the Summer of 2025.

Councillor Sue Dann, Cabinet Member for Customer Services, Sport and Leisure said: “This is a huge deal - not just for Argyle, but for all the partners involved in this project and for the people of Devonport.

"Brickfields has a lot of potential but was looking tired and needed a fresh approach and some significant funding to create something special.

"There's been a huge amount of work to get the balance right: ace facilities to support our future sports development and enhanced provision for women's football, enabling more sports people to reach their goals as well as offering a warm community welcome and good facilities for the rest of us whose aims of keeping fit and healthy are just as important but less spectacular!

"It's been quite a journey and to get this planning application submitted for the entire site is quite an achievement."