Whitby Town turn green again thanks to £5,000 grant from Woodsmith Foundation

Thanks to a £5,000 grant from the Woodsmith Foundation, the club’s charitable foundation has been able to install a new water tank at the ground, to ensure the pitch can be in top condition for the community and local teams to use, even in the driest months of the year. The summer of 2022 provided big logistic problems when carrying out vital work on the Towbar Express Stadium playing surface.

The club’s on-site water pressure and sprinkler system caused problems, failing to water the field adequately across the summer, while record high temperatures on a consistent basis, coupled with very little rainfall, meant that drought conditions were declared across the UK.

With this, a climate-friendly solution needed to be found to ensure that the club’s foundation could continue to provide a top-quality surface for the community to use.

Following the advice of East Riding Horticulture, the foundation looked to purchase a 15,000-litre water tank, which will collect rainwater from the roof of the main stand and make it available for watering the pitch in dry spells.

The work has been completed in recent weeks by East Riding Horticulture, with the new water tank and sprinkler system now in working order, with superior water pressure to that currently available in the ground. This will reduce the club’s dependency on the water supply of the local area, and will be a sustainable, environmentally-friendly way to look after the playing surface to benefit the community.