Reading City reveals 4G pitch plans

Uhlsport Hellenic League Premier Division Reading City have revealed an ambition to have a 4G pitch laid at their Rivermoor ground.

The West Reading side are the latest non-league club to look at an artificial surface as a sustainable way forward with both Ascot United and Bracknell Town making good use of their own installations.

The news was announced on the Real Reading Podcast by the club’s treasurer and facilities manager Victoria Pyke when asked about her ambitions for the club.

We’ve just had approved by the Football Foundation to have a 4G pitch. It is designated to be in Scours Lane [the location of The Rivermoor, Reading City’s home ground], so my ambition is to work through that process to putting a technical plan in place, a community plan. We’ve been to a welcome meeting already and they used Ascot [United’s] pitch and their development as a case study. So that is the ambition next to think about where we’d place a 4G pitch and working towards that. Once that is in place, the approval is there and it can be done over five to 10 years, that is what I’d like to achieve.”

You can listen to the full interview with Victoria on podcast below or on your favourite podcast app by clicking here.

A bit more information from Reading City’s website: “The Rivermoor has been identified as a priority project after we contributed to the Football Foundation’s Local Football Facility Plan (LFFP), a plan for transforming the experience of grassroots football here in Reading.

“The LFFP has now been completed and we’re delighted to announce that the Rivermoor has been identified by the Football Foundation to have a new 3G pitch installed as a priority project.

“The LFFP is a 10-year priority plan, however, the implementation of the pitch at the Rivermoor will take eighteen months from the planning stage up until construction being completed.”

In July, Football in Berkshire was granted an exclusive look around the work that’s been undertaken at the club during lockdown. You can check it all out here.