Dudley Town Football Club will be back playing in borough next season, says council leader

Dudley Town Football Club will be back playing in the borough next season, predicted council leader Patrick Harley during a debate on plans for a new stadium.

Councillor Harley revealed during a meeting of Dudley Council that the club had already identified its preferred location for a new ground, and that work was now taking place behind the scenes to make that a reality.

He said commercial sensitivities meant he could not yet divulge the preferred location, but he hoped to be able to announce it at the next meeting of the council.

The Robins played their last home game in the borough in 2018, shortly before they were forced to vacate The Dell Stadium in Brierley Hill due to problems with badgers digging up the pitch.

Councillor Harley told the meeting: “I believe Dudley Town will be playing its home games back in the borough in time for the 2027 season.

“We have already commissioned an options appraisal, feasibility study, and delivery study, to identify a viable, deliverable home for the club in the borough, but this is not just about finding any option for the club, it’s about finding the right option, one that works for the community, that is financially sustainable, and can actually be delivered.”

Councillor Harley was responding to a motion tabled by Councillor Shaun Keasey, leader of the opposition Reform UK group in the council, which called for the council to carry out a feasibility study into the possibility of using the Portersfield regeneration site in Dudley town centre to provide a community sports stadium for the club.

Councillor Shaukat Ali appeared to hint that the club would be returning to The Dell, before backtracking. But Councillor Steve Edwards, who was previously involved with the club, appeared to contradict that when he said the club did not want to share with other sports. The Dell, which belongs to Dudley Council, is used for athletics.

Councillor Keasey said the town desperately needed an attraction to bring visitors in, and a new sports stadium could form part of a wider development which would also include housing and retail use at the Portersfield site, which was previously occupied by the Cavendish House office block.

Developer Avenbury had previously been granted permission for a major regeneration scheme which would have included a major supermarket, cinema, mini-shopping mall and restaurants, but the project failed to materialise. In July this year, following a prolonged stand-off between the developer and the council, Avenbury was granted outline planning permission to build 256 flats on the site, opposite the town’s much delayed £24 million bus and tram station.

Planning permission had also been granted to turn the former Empire Tavern - later the Metro Bar - into a supermarket, although Councillor Harley has since said that social housing would be his preferred use for the site. Council-owned land on the corner of Hall Street and Trindle Road also forms part of the wider regeneration area.

But Councillor Keasey said housing was not enough to revitalise the town. He said there was little point in having a new tram link and bus station if people had no reason to visit the town, and that a football stadium could be the catalyst Dudley needed bring people in.

“Unless you give people reasons to visit Dudley, all you are doing is creating a first-class transport system that helps people to leave Dudley, rather than come into it. Transport alone doesn’t regenerate a town.

“We need something that makes families say ‘let’s go to Dudley this weekend’.”

Councillor Harley said the housing earmarked for Portersfield was necessary for the authority to meet government targets without encroaching on the green belt.

He agreed that the town needed an ‘anchor site’ to encourage visitors to the town, and believed the proposed ice rink earmarked for Flood Street would help provide that.

Councillor Marco Longhi, the town’s former Tory MP who is now leader of the council’s Reform group, said one of the most frustrating aspects of his time representing the area in parliament was the continued failure of attempts to revive the town.

“The town seemed to be on a downward spiral, whatever we did,” he said.

“If you look back historically, whatever vote took place in this chamber to give Merry Hill permission was the first moment when the town started to decline.

“What we need is a shock to the system, something which breaks this vicious cycle, there needs to be something very different happening, we need to see something radical.”

The council agreed to back an amended motion, agreed between Councillor Harley and Councillor Keasey, which said the council would taken an ‘evidence led’ approach to find a new home for Dudley Town FC, and consider the Portersfield as a possible site for a community sports stadium.

Dudley Town was founded in 1888, and played at The Sports Centre - now the site of Castlegate leisure and business park - from 1932 to 1985, when the stadium was forced to close due to subsidence.

After three years ground sharing with Stourbridge FC, the Robins moved to a new permanent home at the Round Oak Stadium in 1988.

The club folded 10 years later, and Round Oak became a David Lloyd sports centre.

The Robins have since had a nomadic existence, variously ground sharing with Gornal Athletic, Stourbridge FC, and most recently, Sporting Khalsa in Willenhall.

Dudley also played at The Dell Stadium for 11 years, from 2007 to 2018, before the problem with the badgers forced them to quit.