Ambitious plans proposed to improve Bristol Rovers former home Twerton Park

Non-league club Bath City have submitted ambitious plans to re-develop Twerton Park, the former home of Bristol Rovers.

Twerton Park was the home of the Gas from 1986 to 1996, after their departure from Eastville, and they later departed to play at the Memorial Stadium. Eastville Stadium was their ground for a long time, but it was knocked down and later became an IKEA in 1997.

For a decade, Rovers played their matches there, groundsharing with Bath City, but since leaving 27-years ago, Bath have been the predominant tenants, whilst Bristol City Women have also played there in recent years. The Romans have ambitious plans to develop the ground, which would improve its facilities.

Bath plan to rip up their grass pitch and replace it with a 3G surface, which would make for a significant change from the surface Rovers previously played on. The club have submitted their proposals to Bath & North East Somerset Council and will now await their outcome of their bid.

In a club statement posted last week, it read: "Bath City Football Club will this week submit a planning application to B&NES council for a 3G pitch at Twerton Park as part of our longstanding strategy to make the Club a sustainable business at the heart of our community.

"The southside of Bath is not well served by sporting infrastructure and the Club believes that the 3G pitch will be an invaluable asset for the local area, enabling more activity to take place to support the health and wellbeing of our local community.

"For the football club itself, a 3G pitch would reduce income lost due to match postponements (four this season already including women’s games) as well as providing a much-needed significant additional revenue stream."

Bath currently play in the National League South which is the sixth tier of English football. Several clubs have a 3G surface, and they are permitted up until the Football League. Harrogate Town and Sutton United previously had a 3G surface, but once they won promotion they had to replace it with grass, despite Sutton playing Premier League side Arsenal on their pitch.

Artificial surfaces are meant to last for 10 years, and whilst they are not 100% guaranteed to ensure a game are on, they do not tear up like grass can do with heavy rainfall. Clubs that have 3G pitches are able to welcome community teams to use their pitch.