Bin your boots and help community football

Leisure centres in Brighton & Hove have set up ‘boot banks’ for people to donate football boots for play on a new pitch in Portslade.

The boots will be used by people who want to play football on the all- weather pitch but are unable to afford the footwear which has to meet a certain standard for the surface.

You can drop off your unwanted and outgrown boots at Stanley Deason and Withdean leisure centres as well as Portslade Sports Centre where the new pitch will be.

Why we need your boots

Councillor Alan Robins, chair of the Tourism, Equalities, Communities & Culture Committee, said: “The boot bank came about as a result of winning funding for our wonderful new 3G pitch in Portslade. You need to wear specific boots to play on the surface and we all know sports boots are expensive, and children grow out of them quickly so we came up with the idea of a recycling bank for these boots. 

“It means that everyone will be able to play on the new pitch and they can be used by the students at the local school, the Portslade Aldridge Community Academy. Football is incredibly popular in the city and access to a first-class 3G surface will be a great asset to the community, so we don’t want anyone to miss out.”

We are looking for all sizes of children’s and adult boots. They must be clean and undamaged and ideally have moulded studs. Screw studs can also be used.

The boot banks are a partnership between Freedom Leisure and the council.

New 3G pitch

Work has started on building the new 3G football pitch and is expected to open in late September. It is replacing the existing synthetic pitch, which had reached the end of its usable life. 

It is funded by a grant from the Premier League, The FA and Government’s Football Foundation. 

The £341,640 grant from the Football Foundation will provide a base for partner clubs Mile Oak Wanderers and Hangleton Rangers to offer their youth teams a first-class playing surface to grow and develop grassroots football.