THORNBURY Town FC members are frustrated with delays to plans to improve their pitch, with time running out for upgrades that would see them finally able to win promotion.

Plans put forward by the club would see improvements to their main pitch on the Mundy Playing Fields – changes that are needed so they meet FA standards for higher leagues.

The application for the revamp, which would include a covered 100-seater stand, floodlights and a gated perimeter fence, is currently under review, but a decision on planning permission is yet to be made.

With the team currently second in the Gloucestershire County League, the improvements need to be in place by March 31 for the club to qualify for the Western League should they secure promotion.

Among the delays for planning permission, environmental officers have asked for a survey on how the floodlights could affect nearby bats. However, as the animals are in hibernation at this time of year, this can’t take place until well after the deadline.

Planning officers also raised concerns over the impact of the floodlights on the landscape.

 Club chairman Toni Watola said:  “The last time we got to a position where we could have won the league was in 2010, and back then it was a huge disappointment that we did not have the facilities to get promotion.

“We are having a good season right now and it would be a great disappointment if we again were not able to advance despite having the talent in our squad to do so.”

Another complication is the delay to build pathways around the pitch after they were accidentally included in the planning application, despite not requiring it – a problem the club have said they are “hopeful” can be fixed with the council.

Voicing his concerns on the wait for planning permission during last Thursday’s meeting of Thornbury Town Council’s playing fields and cemetery committee, Mr Watola said the club were “sensitive to the issue that six columns could affect the view,” but said “at the same time Thornbury is growing as a community, and we feel that the facilities need to grow with it.”

“It has been suggested that this development could change the image and identity of the town, but with the number of coffee shops and however many thousands of houses are going up, the identity of Thornbury is changing – I don’t really see what difference some floodlights will do.”

Despite joking in the meeting that the wait was like “death by a thousand cuts”, he said that if planning permission was given by March 6, they would be able to complete the work required by the end of the month.

Funding for the upgrades, expected to cost around £125,000, would mostly come from the club, with applications for grants from the FA and other football bodies as well.