Football club bosses have said 1,000 young players will be displaced if plans to turn a busy sports facility into a hockey field are given the green light.

Coaches of multiple clubs in Renfrewshire have hit out at the proposals by Kelburne Hockey Club to transform Ralston Sports Centre into a new £600,000 hub.

The hockey club is in the process of applying for a community asset transfer of the centre, which would see the football pitches transformed into hockey facilities by August 2022.

But the proposals have been branded as “selfish” by amateur bosses, who say the lack of facilities in the area would leave dozens of clubs fighting for places to train and play every week.

Currently there are three pitches available for hire – Seedhill, Ralston and Ferguslie Sports Centre.

A further three are available in schools, however, coaches say they are not as readily available to book.

Kelburne – which has 250 members – has previously defended the plans, with club secretary Billy Anderson stating they wanted to overhaul the “tired” facilities to create a “vibrant and well-used facility that stands the test of time.”

But clubs which currently train on the pitch are not convinced.

Gerry Macdonald runs Ralston Skills multi-sports club for primary children as well as coaching adult amateurs Alba Thistle AFC.

He has used the facility for more than ten years and says he would face having to move his club if Kelburne take over as they will have priority access to the facilities.

He told the Express: “We are disappointed and really quite angry that the hockey club think this would be a good idea.

“Kelburne have been insisting that the new hockey pitch they are planning to install is suitable for other sports to be played on.

“But it just will not be suitable for training or matches.

“There are going to be 1,000 footballers who will be impacted if these plans were to go ahead.”

He added: “The club have already suggested moving the slots available to some of the teams which raised concerns.

“One of the clubs on a Saturday morning which is for young children would essentially clash with when they wanted to train.

“They suggested the kids move their session to a Friday night, which to be honest I thought was really selfish of them.”

Paul McGrath, who coaches Hillwood 2006s, said he fears a number of young players would have to give up training if they lost the access to the Ralston centre.

He said: “The centre is full almost every night from 5.30pm until 10pm and there are about ten teams each night which use it.

“Our team use it to train on a Monday and a Wednesday and it would be really difficult for us to find that anywhere else.

“It would really impact some of the boys that play on our team too.

“If access to these facilities were taken away, some of them would stop playing football as it just wouldn’t be accessible to them.

“Football is such a big part of their lives and it’s a good outlet for them so we were really disappointed to see the plans didn’t do much to facilitate the teams which use the centre just now.

“To take it away would be a bit of a logistical nightmare for a lot of clubs.”

Kelburne Hockey Club is currently in discussion with council chiefs, sportsscotland and Scottish Hockey to make the plans a reality.

If given the green light, the club, which is currently based in Whitehaugh, says it will “replace the current pitch with a synthetic hockey pitch and make best use of current facilities within the pavilion”.

Currently, Ralston Sports Centre is operated by Renfrewshire Leisure and contains a dance studio, fitness suite/gym and changing areas with shower facilities and lockers.

The club says the planned hockey pitch will be free to Renfrewshire’s nine secondary schools and available to primaries via Active Schools.

And they say the grass football pitches will be available at lower cost to football clubs and talks would be ongoing on possible football play on the new hockey pitch.

A meeting was held on Monday night by Ralston Community Council after an angry division in support for and against the move.

The meeting, which was attended by 100 residents heard there were many unanswered questions about the proposed takeover and a lack of detail about where the money was coming from.

Some residents were concerned about an increase in traffic and noise and floodlight issues.

Scottish Conservative West Scotland MSP Russell Findlay said: “I was there to listen to local residents and what they had to say was loud, clear and apparently unanimous.

“Speaker after speaker told the council that this crown jewel sports centre must remain in community ownership rather than being off-loaded to save cash.”

Councillor Neill Graham, Scottish Conservative group leader at Renfrewshire Council, added: “I was moved by many contributions but especially from Norrie Murray of Ralston Community Skills who spoke passionately about giving local children of all abilities access to sport at
Ralston.

“He was clear that if this ‘land grab’ was agreed by the council, his club and these kids would be homeless, which would be a complete betrayal.”