BRACKNELL Town FC will decide in the next day or two which company will provide their new 3G carpet at Larges Lane, writes Dave Wright.

And, as long as the club receive the green light from the council, this week will also see the arrival of a 22-tonne excavator to clear the ground as Velocity Sports Ltd take on the £600,000 contract of transforming the venue.

“It is an important week in the progression of the site,” said Robins director and chairman Kayne Steinborn-Busse.

Last night (Tuesday) the club were looking for their traffic management plans to be approved by the Bracknell Forest Council.

These plans concern the amount of heavy lorries that will be using Larges Lane to remove the top soil from the site and during which hours they will be working.

Steinborn-Busse added: “It helps as it is school holiday time and we will do everything we can to make sure the local residents are inconvenienced as little as possible.”

He revealed the choice of pitch manufacturer is down to three – one based in Germany, another in Belgium and one from a Scandinavian company with a European operation.

“It will be a very high-spec pitch, not like anything else in this area,” said Steinborn-Busse.

“Yes, there are 3G pitches in Bracknell, but this will be a step ahead of those you see at local schools and leisure centres.

“The carpet will be going down on the top of a fully-engineered tarmac base.

“This is a massive step up from what is usually put down at other places which have a dynamic base – that is a base that can move.

“A dynamic base costs around £90,000 cheaper, so you can see why other venues go for that.

“But we won’t compromise in that area and we have gone for one that will last. So, when we come to replacing it in the future, we will just have to take the carpet up and put a new one down. You can’t do that on dynamic base.”

Steinborn-Busse continued: “We have done an awful lot of preparation work, like killing off the grass and demolishing stands and other temporary buildings, but now we are looking to hand over to Velocity.

“Once we do that, our job is virtually done for certainly all of August and September and probably into October.

“Velocity are contracted to deliver the ground work and they have to hand back to us a playing surface, as well as the pathways, floodlighting, internal and external fencing, the drainage and retaining walls.

“It will be at least a couple of months before the actual carpet will be put down.”

On the process of selecting the carpet, club officials spent months visiting grounds, even going over to Germany to look at various examples.

“We eventually narrowed our choice down to three manufacturers and we plan to make our final decision by the end of this week, “ said Steinborn-Busse.

“They do make pitches in China at half the price, but we have decided not to compromise in that area even though we could have saved ourselves quite a considerable amount of money. Those made by European companies are of a higher quality.

“We have even been into factories to see their products and have seen some very impressive carpets being weaved.

“We would have loved to have gone for an English one, but unfortunately there just aren’t any proven manufactures in the country.”

Steinborn-Busse, team manager Mark Tallentire and match secretary Bob Langridge have been to see artificial pitches that are two or three years old and see how they are wearing.

“You have to get FIFA accreditation every year for this type of pitch, so it was really important we found a pitch that would achieve a FIFA one or two star,” stated Steinborn-Busse.

“It is easy to achieve it in year one, but it is a matter of whether you can still achieve it in year five.

“The pitch also has to look right and we are going for a very luscious artificial thick turf.

“Saltex (one of the companies under consideration) have a pitch at Carshalton and from the side you would be very hard pressed to notice it is artificial.

“As for the weekly maintenance, we will probably only have to spend around a tenth of the time we had to on the grass pitch last season.”

Steinborn-Busse was full of praise for the support his club are getting from Bracknell Forest Council, especially Katie Walker.

He added: “She is our planning case worker and overseeing the project from start to finish at the council end. We cannot praise her enough for the speed which she has moved to get this major application from day one.

“We must also mention our local MP, Dr Phillip Lee, as he has backed our plans since day one and has been very supportive.

“These are very exciting times for this football club and we cannot wait for the day when the new pitch will be ready for use.”

In the meantime, the Robins will be using Sandhurst Town FC for their home Hellenic League and cup fixtures.