Irvine Community Sports Club chiefs have doubled down on a controversial decision to turn their showpiece football park into a hockey pitch – leaving an amateur football team homeless just weeks before the start of the season.
At a special AGM on Thursday night, the board of Irvine Sports Club voted to facilitate the return of Irvine Ladies Hockey Club to play their matches on the main grass pitch at Marress playing fields for the first time since the 1990s.
The pitch has been used for football in the intervening decades – primarily by the now defunct Clark Drive Amateurs – and for the last four years by Irvine AFC who have rented the park on a pay-to-play basis.
But now the amateur side have been told there is no room for them at the facility, leaving them without a home ahead of the season starting on August 7.
The club revealed their dismay at the decision in a statement issued on Facebook on Friday.
It read: “After a special AGM called at Irvine sports club last night, we now find ourselves homeless with no pitch to play or train on.
“Four-and-a-bit years of treating the place in the best possible way to now be forced out of the club and one of the best football parks in the west of Scotland will now be turned into a hockey pitch.
“As a community team based in Irvine providing football for local players all over Ayrshire, we are saddened at the decision by the “Community” sports club to leave us with nowhere to play or train.”
Sports Club chiefs broke their silence on the matter on Sunday after the Irvine Herald made an approach for comment.
Club secretary Andy Rennie said the board stood by the decision.
He said Irvine Ladies Hockey Club's status as a founder member of the club in 1972 was a key factor behind the decision.
And he revealed the sports club’s long-term plan is to convert the pitch to an artificial surface.
He said: “The procedure and decision-making process which the Sports Club board undertook with regard to this matter was entirely fair and proper and I would defend it in any forum.
“By a comprehensive margin the board voted to relocate the area to ladies hockey.
“Key factors in reaching this decision were undoubtedly the hockey club’s long association with the club, the passion which they demonstrated for ‘coming home’ and the sports club’s policy of trying to create dedicated development areas for each of its six outdoor sports, archery, cricket, girls football, hockey, rugby and running.
“Irvine Amateurs will naturally be disappointed by the decision but the Sports Club has let this pitch to various local football cubs since Clark Drive Amateurs and had no arrangement to give permanent use to any of them.
“There are plenty of other grass pitches available in the area at schools, Annick and Springside which can be utilised.
"We have allowed Irvine Amateurs to train and play scheduled games at Irvine Sports Club until the end of July."
The issue over the use of the pitch arose after three parties – Irvine Ladies Hockey, Irvine AFC and Clark Drive Girls – staked a claim for it.
All three groups were asked to make presentations at the special AGM for the board to consider.
Mr Rennie also confirmed that Irvine Running Club, who use the running track around the pitch, made an 11th hour submission on the night.
Sports Clubs chiefs claim the hockey club made it known to them they wished to return to their original pitch after Clark Drive Amateurs folded in 2017.
After vacating the pitch in the 90s, the hockey club played on a ‘temporary’ park on the cricket outfield.
They remained there until two years ago when league rules forbidding grass surfaces forced them to relocate games to an artificial surface at Marr College in Troon.
The Irvine Herald understands that the current division the ladies team play in allows for the use of grass pictures, which paved the way for their return.
Mr Rennie confirmed Irvine AFC had sounded out the sports club about achieving membership status in recent years but said matters never progressed.
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