Hibernian in new training center plan

An old milk-processing plant will be transformed into a GBP 3 million training centre for Scottish Hibernian.

Planning leaders are expected to give the OK to create up to ten full-sized pitches near Tranent.

Facilities could include outdoor grass pitches, an indoor synthetic five-a-side pitch, a gym, changing rooms, a kitchen and dining area and a lounge and laundry facilities.

That has been a long-term goal for the club. Currently, the club's players go to Easter Road, and then are taken to any of six or seven training centres.

"The club doesn't currently own any training ground and this will make it easier for the players," said a club spokesman. "It's a big piece of land and is just 20 minutes door-to-door from Easter Road. Everyone at the club is hopeful that the planning consent will go through. Attaining our own training ground has been a top priority of the club for some time and the manager has made it plain that he regards the establishment of a training centre as a huge stride forward."

The East Mains Training Centre, between Tranent and Ormiston, could provide enough pitches in one spot for training to move easily between pitches as soon as one began to wear out.

It would be the first such training centre that the club has owned and will primarily be used by the first team squad, though younger squads will benefit. Former Hibernian player Paul Kane said players as young as nine-years old will see time at the complex.

A milking shed converted into an indoor training barn with a synthetic pitch. Existing agricultural land, currently used for grazing, would be used to accommodate the pitches, which will not be floodlit.

The centre is likely to operate between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays, and will have a two-metre high green chain-link fence around the site.

Kane said it the club needed to own its own centre rather than having to be at the mercy of others.

"It's a long-term plan which will include an indoor arena for training in winter," Kane said. "The players train at Cramond every day but anything could happen and they need a permanent area that will be there forevermore."

Peter Collins, director of environment at East Lothian Council, forwarded a report recommending approval for the complex at Tuesday's planning committee meeting.

"The proposed football training centre would be an effective re-use of the redundant buildings on the application site and an acceptable alternative use of the fields that also comprise the site," Collins said. "It would result in minimal change to the physical form and character of the site and the change of use of the agricultural land would be reversible.

"In conclusion, it is a use not inappropriate to the rural character of this countryside location."

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.