Nuneaton’s pre-season plans thrown into jeopardy

By Adele Matthews
Ground sharing tensions could jeopardise National League North Nuneaton Borough‘s pre-season clash with Coventry City.
A row between the Non-League club and Nuneaton’s rugby club led to the rugby club’s decision to block access into to the football ground this week.
Skips were dumped outside the entrance to the club after the failure to reach an agreement of new terms concerning the ground share.
The Liberty Way Ground has been involved in the dispute since January last year but both clubs have been sharing the premise since 2008.
Port Vale owner, Norman Smurthwaite, became landlord of Nuneaton Borough in June, which allowed the club through financial difficulty. However, he does not obtain ownership of the club.
Smuthwaite told CoventryLive yesterday : “There was supposed to be a SAG (Safety Advisory Group) meeting on Thursday in preparation for the game on Saturday and we know, for health and safety reasons, we will not be given a licence for the game if the skips are still blocking access.
“So, we will either have to play the game behind closed doors or find another venue for it.”
A Nuneaton Rugby Club spokesperson has justified their reasons, explaining: “The right to access Nuns land is always part of the groundshare agreement and so clearly in the absence of an agreement Nuns have to protect that right.
So, the skips are simply performing the role of a fence protecting Nuns’ land rights. Let’s hope this can all be sorted quickly to benefit both clubs and sport in Nuneaton.”
Nuneaton Borough have tweeted details concerning the match Saturday, suggesting the plan is for the game to go ahead. They kick-off against Coventry City at 1pm.