GABRFC note the issuance of a statement dated 31/03/2026 from Kidlington Town Council (KTC) on their considerations regarding the future management of Stratfield Brake.

As the largest long term resident user club, we have worked tirelessly over the last 2 decades to ensure the sustainable development of community rugby across all ages, genders, sexes and forms of the game, receiving local, regional, national, and international recognition of our efforts.

We were pleased to read of KTC’s acknowledgment of our successes and an express indication of their support to long term sustainability and growth.

However, and most importantly, any new arrangements for the facility must not put additional excessive cost burdens on our ability to deliver high quality rugby provision for all across the totality of our community.

As a Club we already pay almost £20,000 per year for use of the facility when rugby related activities are taking place, significantly more than other user clubs.

It is important to note that GABRFC rugby related activities are undertaken at times amounting to less than 10% of potential local authority staffed annual opening hours of the Stratfield Brake.

GABRFC operations are enabled solely by the provision of over 10,500 hrs of annual volunteer support which is provided by the local community to the local community completely free of charge and in volunteers own personal time.

Using official Sports England metrics, this free of charge volunteer provision has a minimum economic cash equivalent of more than £183,000 per annum, provides an estimated added value societal impact of over £800,000 per annum, and is a key tenet of the local authority’s ability to deliver on its health and well-being targets.

GABRFC have provided and continue to provide expert advice to the local authority based on 25 years of lived operational experience at Stratfield Brake as to what works, what doesn’t work and what will never work in order to minimise costs and maximise user satisfaction. We presented these yet again for consideration in September 2025. Our proposal can be found on this page.

Despite our early outreach over 7 months ago and our recommendations on how to significantly reduce the operational costs of Stratfield Brake, the very limited discussions to date have meant that no agreement has yet been reached on the forward arrangements for GABRFCs continued operation after 30 April 2026 at Stratfield Brake.

We look forward to working with KTC and GWPEC to find a mutually agreeable solution that is fair, reasonable, affordable and one which takes into account the level of fees we already pay and the huge economic and societal value and positive impact our volunteers make on the local community.

Phil Peirsegaele
GABRFC Chair