A South London League One football club has been given permission to add a new fan zone to its stadium on match days.
Charlton Athletic FC will now be able to play music and serve booze in a fan zone outside The Valley stadium on Floyd Road from up to two hours before home matches.
The zone can stay open after matches until 9pm or an hour after the game ends, whichever is earlier. The application was discussed at a licensing meeting for Greenwich Council on September 17, with the proposal originally requesting for alcohol to be served at the fan zone from 9am to 9pm each day.
Jon Blythe, head of operations at The Valley, said at the meeting that the original submission was done to facilitate the wide schedule during which matches could be played and the zone was only intended to be used on match days. Labour Councillor Jo van den Broek, who represents Charlton Village, said she and her constituents were supportive of Charlton Athletic but that residents were ‘very upset’ by the original 12 hours proposal.
She said at the meeting: “I cannot be surprised that people have reacted so badly, with such concern, because it’s literally yards from people’s rooms where they live, where they sleep, that this will be going on.”
A petition against the plans was signed by 79 residents. Cllr van den Broek added that several residents claimed they were not informed beforehand about a family fun day that occurred at the club in July. Mr Blythe said in response that numerous leaflets had been distributed alongside extensive online advertising about the event in the weeks prior.
The club representative added that he sent 75 letters to properties around the perimeter of the club grounds about a meeting and told attendees that the fan zone would only be used on match days. However, Jenny Westney, a resident living near the grounds, said she was not aware of the meeting between the club and residents.
She added that locals already experienced noise disturbances from the stadium on a weekly basis for seven months of the year. Ms Westney also said she and her neighbours were suffering from the temporary events that were already being held at the fan zone, including the family fun day.
She said at the meeting: “Particularly those residents who are adjacent to the car park, I have been in their gardens myself and witnessed the sounds and the smells that are coming from this fan zone … Please consider how it is affecting our lives.”
Labour Councillor David Gardner advised Mr Blythe to find ways to better work with the neighbours of the grounds on potential disturbances. The licensing sub-committee said in its decision notice published earlier this week that permission for the fan zone had been granted but only on match days. Conditions for the licence included no away fans being allowed into the fan zone and alcohol can only be drunk within the zone.
Cllr Gardner said at the meeting: “There would be benefit to the club and benefit to the local residents clearly if there was some sort of better, improved relationship between the immediate local residents to try and navigate some of these issues that are bound to come up from time to time.”
