Derbyshire football club can't get insurance due to persistent flooding “putting it in jeopardy and risk of closure”

Belper Town Football Club’s grounds, including its clubhouse, at the Raygar Stadium in Christchurch Meadow, are typically among the first to flood when Derbyshire experiences heavy rainfall.

Its facilities have been flooded under feet of water four times in the past five years – most recently in December – and the club now details in an application to Amber Valley Borough Council that it can no longer gain insurance for its clubhouse.

The club has had to gut the ground-floor and remodel on several occasions following the impact of floodwater, with further events now seemingly inevitable on the grounds – which are in Flood Zone 3 (the highest risk).

In its application, it details the Football Association will no longer provide it with financial assistance and that the “hardships” of repeated flooding incidents are “not sustainable”.

The club, known as the Nailers, has applied for a two-storey extension to its clubhouse to contain a classroom and a function room at first-floor level.

It details that a key aim of the extension is to provide a space that will be unaffected by future flooding incidents so that these will not prevent events from going ahead.

The club writes: “Alongside additional much-needed flexible function space, Belper Town seek to provide Belper Town Academy with a regular daytime classroom area that doesn’t affect its current business model which includes function space for local business during daytime hours.

“The permanent solution of a separated classroom area will allow Belper Town to expand numbers to the Belper Town academy over the forthcoming years.

“A previous application provided this space but due to recent and persistent flooding a much larger space is required at first floor.

“Being able to hold the functions and events at first floor will mean even if the property has recently flooded it will not affect the space and it can continue in its normal operation as soon as the flooding has subsided.

“The continual flooding has led to not only loss of revenue but also loss of event space.

“The club can longer get insurance and the Football Association will no longer provide financial assistance.

“These hardships are not sustainable and for the club to stay available to the community the increase in first floor space is required.

“The football club cannot get insurance anymore and has been uninsured for a while, furthermore the Football Association have now confirmed that because it floods regularly it also cannot help out financially.

“This situation puts the club in jeopardy and the facility at risk of permanent closure leading to a significant loss for Belper should the first floor space not be granted.

“Currently the ground floor floods regularly, most recently in December 2023. The ground floor has flooded four times in the past five years, every time this happens it means the space downstairs cannot be used as a function suite which is lost revenue to the club and hardship on the users to find another space, this loss of space is why the first floor now needs to be larger.”

Belper Town FC, founded in 1883, play in the Northern Premier League Division One East in the eighth tier of the English football league and are currently placed seventh on 57 points with 17 wins, six draws and 11 losses.

A decision will be made by the borough council in the next few months.