Windsor & Eton Football Club is more than just a football club – it’s the heart of a thriving, passionate community with a proud history and an exciting future.
Born in 2023 as a Community Interest Company, the club has a clear mission: to serve our community and build a sustainable, inclusive future for football in Windsor. From our historic home at Stag Meadow, we are creating a club that’s truly for everyone, irrespective of age, gender or ability.
Last season, our Men’s, Women’s and Veterans teams all won their respective league titles, a testament to the passion, commitment and talent within our club. But our success doesn’t stop there. Our ever-growing Windsor & Eton Youth section boasts over 50 teams – from under-5s to under-18s – including a flourishing girls’ programme that represents the future of football in our town.
Now, we’re ready to take the next step – and we need your support.
Why a 3G Pitch at Stag Meadow?
Right now, over 600 local boys and girls play football across a patchwork of sites in Windsor and Eton, many of which are poorly maintained or unavailable in bad weather or after dark. This limits our ability to offer consistent, inclusive football for young people, women and girls, and community groups year-round.
That’s why we plan to install a 3G pitch at Stag Meadow, to provide a permanent home for Windsor & Eton Youth and unlock much-needed playing capacity for local schools and the wider community.
And we’re not alone in recognising the need:
Installing this pitch will:
With support from the Crown Estate and the RBWM, we’re proud to share our vision – and invite you to help us make it a reality. This is about more than a pitch. It’s about giving Windsor a home for football, and building something extraordinary, together.
Stag Meadow, St Leonards Road – Thursday 11th December between 6.30pm and 8.00pm
Thank you for eveeryone’s views on our proposed state-of-the-art artificial grass (3G) pitch at Stag Meadow
The public consultation ran for 21 days from 10th September to 1st October 2025. We had an excellent turn out for our in-person meeting and received a significant number of completions of our online survey. We are collating all of the invaluable feedback together, and we will keep you all updated with the next steps.
In the meantime any further questions can be directed to comms@wefc.co.uk
To help you better understand what we’re aiming to achieve and to put to bed any false narratives that might be circulating, we have put together a set of FAQs to answer your questions. If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to email us at comms@wefc.co.uk
WEFC is a Community Interest Company “CIC”, whose purpose is to serve the community as a joint venture between Windsor Youth Club (Junior under 18 football), Chaired by Paul Mitchell and WEFC (Senior over 18 football), Chaired by former Windsor player and manager Mark Cooper.
WEFC’s mission is to build a sustainable, inclusive future for football in Windsor, creating a club that’s truly for everyone, irrespective of gender, age, background or ability
WEFC agreed a 25 year lease with the Crown Estate in 2023 at Stag Meadow which has a full size grass football pitch.
The Senior Mens & Womens teams play their league and cup fixtures at Stag Meadow, but with it being a grass surface there is very limited scope for the pitch to be used by our 50+ youth teams or the wider community.
Currently our 50+ teams of over 600 boys and girls of aged between 8 and 18 play their fixtures and hold training sessions at disparate locations in the borough, which are becoming increasingly expensive and often poorly maintained or substandard. An artificial grass pitch would enable Stag Meadow to be a Football HQ for all of our youth sides, as well as providing a facility for the wider community, including local schools and community groups.
WEFC is actively working with local schools and community groups to widen participation in football. Football pathways to provide coaching and form new teams for Women and Girls have been set up and a Community strategy is in place, with programmes being established with the RBWM community team, local ethnic groups, later years groups, Football Disability and Get Berkshire Active. These initiatives should have a very positive impact on the overall health and well being of Windsor residents of all ages.
The Football Foundation
The Football Foundation published their Local Football Facility Plan for Windsor & Maidenhead in April 2025. For Windsor the Plan identified that there is a shortfall of 2 full size 3G pitches and the Football Foundation has selected Stag Meadow as a priority site for 3G investment (the other site being Windsor Boys School).
The Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead
The RBWM’s Sports & Leisure Strategy 2024 – 2033 also identifies a shortfall of at least 2 full size 3G pitches with Stag Meadow listed as one of 2 priority sites (the other also being Windsor Boys School)
The Crown Estate
The Crown Estate is a joint applicant for Planning together with WEFC for an artificial grass pitch at Stag Meadow.
What is a 3G pitch, is it safe, what will it cost, what changes to the stadium will be needed
3G surfaces are “third generation” artificial grass surfaces specifically designed to meet the needs of different sports, including football and rugby, by closely replicating the playing characteristics of natural turf. 3G football pitches refer to 3Gs which are designed specifically to meet FIFA standards.
The focus area for Safety and Environmental impact is the use of “rubber crumb” on 3G surfaces and therefore potential issues from the “shedding” of microplastics.
From a Safety perspective several scientific studies have concluded that there is “no reason to advise people against playing sports on synthetic turf containing recycled rubber granules as infill” (ie a 3G pitch)
From an Environmental perspective the Football Foundation’s (FF) 3G pitch designs require the installation of containment measures to minimise microplastic shedding. The expected lifespan of a 3G surface is c.10 years, but on replacement WEFCs undertaking to the Football Foundation will be to have the old surface recycled at a Football Foundation approved facility.
The EU has not banned the use of rubber crumb on 3G pitches but there is an 8 year transition period to replace it with a more sustainable alternative by 2031. The Football Foundation is currently working with the Government on how these measures should apply in the UK and is testing alternative infill solutions at a site in Sheffield.
The estimated cost of installing a 3G pitch is c£1m. If Planning Permission is obtained the Football Foundation have indicated that WEFC will then be able to apply for a grant that would fund a significant proportion of this cost, with the balance to be raised from partners, sponsors and the club’s own resources.
The configuration of the pitch at Stag Meadow will not change. The 3G pitch will replace the current grass surface and will use the existing drainage outlet to direct rainwater into the Bourne Ditch.
No changes are required to the physical footprint or structure of the stadium. A Planning application will need to include the following ancillary items required by the Football Foundation under their grant criteria for a 3G pitch:
Barriers: the existing pitch protection barrier running between the playing area and the spectator area is proposed to be replaced with a new 1.1m high green weldmesh fencing (primarily to protect the new pitch from unauthorised use)
Floodlights: the existing floodlights which illuminate the pitch are to be replaced on the retained existing columns and masts with more efficient LED luminaires. These will provide a more modern lighting solution giving greater concentration of light on the playing area with less light spill in the surrounding area.
Why is WEFC announcing this now, what are the next steps, when would the 3G be installed?
Stag Meadow is in the Football Foundation pipeline of pitch projects able to apply for funding, subject to obtaining Planning Permission.
We had a pre-planning site advisory meeting from the RBWM Planning team on 22nd July.
This was positive about the likely success of our prospective Planning Application for a 3G pitch at Stag Meadow, subject to WEFC commissioning the necessary specialist pieces of work to ensure compliance with Planning Requirements, listed below.
As we can now move to preparing a full Planning Application for the 3G pitch, we want to widely communicate with local residents and the wider community, so that we can incorporate their input and feedback (through in-person consultation meetings and an online survey) into our finalised application.
Specialist work to be carried out prior to submitting a full Planning Application, by Property Consultants WSP
We expect that this work will take until October to complete, at which time we expect to be able to submit the full Planning Application.
WEFC will be holding Pre-Application Public Consultation Meetings on the evenings of Wednesday 3rd and Thursday 4th September 2025.
There is an online consultation survey available at [link] and this will be available to complete until 30th September.
We would hope to hear the outcome of the Planning decision in Q1 2026 and if granted, then be able to apply for Football Foundation grant funding. A successful award would then lead to a 3rd party tendering and detailed planning process to carry out the work. Realistically then, if all goes well, we would aim to be able to have the new 3G pitch installed over Spring/Summer 2027.
How will Stag Meadow be used when the 3G football pitch is installed and will their be an impact on Parking?
With the new 3G pitch in place, Stag Meadow will be available all year round, all day and every day for use by WEFC, all our youth teams and the wider community for football training and matches.
On weekdays during the day it will be available for use by local schools and third parties.
On weekday evenings it will be used by a mixture of WEFC Senior and Youth football teams for matches and training.
At the weekends it will be used in the mornings to hold Youth football matches as well as the current Senior WEFC fixtures.
We have developed a Usage Plan which anticipates that the 3G pitch will be available for use from 9am to 10pm. The Usage plan shows hourly slots with the pitch able to be split into up to 4 areas, if being used by small sided junior teams to play and train, which means at peak times (early midweek evenings) there could be up to 40 players plus parents and coaches, so estimate up to 80 adults and children at any one time.
Current parking management on MatchDays
Saturday matchdays for the WEFC Senior Mens teams will continue to be when there are the most people (c300 supporters, players and officials) visiting the ground with an estimate of up to 100 cars either dropping off or trying to park leading to congestion.
To manage this WEFC have recently introduced new MatchDay parking restrictions in the Stag Meadow Car Park to better manage car parking on Saturday and Tuesday Matchdays for Senior Mens Team fixtures. A new barrier has been installed with clear signage setting out the times MatchDays occure and that the car park is reserved for WEFC use (as provided in the lease with the Crown Estate). WEFC position stewards in the car park and at the St Leonards road access junction at the restricted times to communicate and help manage parking and access during the restricted periods.
Further, WEFC are considering the introduction of pre – booking in order to be able to park at Stag Meadow on Matchdays, which would be an additional tool to manage traffic flow and parking.
Developing a Travel Parking Management Plan to support the Usage Plan for the whole week
With the 3G surface in place there will clearly be an increased usage of the Stag Meadow pitch during the week, and therefore additional traffic and parking activity, but from above the total numbers at any one time will be much leas than on a Saturday afternoon MatchDay, with midweek evening peak estimated at people. There will or course be changeover peaks at the beginning and end of training sessions and matches which are likely to require proactive management from WEFC and this will be assessed as part of the Travel and Parking Management Plan that is being prepared a Pre-Planning workstream.
Property consultants WSP prepared a pre-planning Transport Note.
The Note sets out the proposal for the 3G pitch together with the implications on traffic and parking from increased usage during the week. In that Note we have undertaken to work with WSP to put together a new Site Travel and Parking Plan for Stag Meadow that will form part of the Transport Statement to be submitted in support of the Planning Application.
The Site Travel and Parking Plan will propose site management measures and commitments, and include a robust assessment of the impact of these proposals:
Proposals likely to include:
Tasks to be undertaken:
Will Stag Meadow be noisier, and is it just becoming a Commercial Hub?
The Planning application will propose the replacement of the existing pitch protection barrier with a new 1.1m high green weldmesh fencing. This however is primarily to protect the new pitch from unauthorised use and is not acoustic fencing, but it is likely to help reduce noise travelling out of the stadium.
A Noise Assessment based on the 3G pitch Usage Plan will be carried out.
We will need to generate some income from our Programme of Use, and will be assessing what the right level of charges should be based on
But we will not be trying to make a profit – rather we will need to generate sufficient income to cover the costs of 3G maintenance, supporting the additional activities in the Usage plan and the need to put money aside to eventually renew the 3G surface.
