Royals Bag Bearwood Approval

Reading Football Club have got a category 1 status academy and intend to hang onto it by building a brand new training facility in Bearwood, Wokingham.

According to GetReading, the club have been granted approval by Wokingham Borough Council to move ahead with their plans.

Reading FC’s plans for a new state of the art training ground at Bearwood have been approved by Wokingham Borough Council.

The plans include levelling the ground to create three full-size team pitches to house the club’s first team and academy, five other pitches for use by under-18s and two goalkeeping practice areas.

They were approved last night by the council and the club will now be looking to push on with their move from their current Hogwood Park training ground.

The new facility will be built on a 120-acre sight which used to house Bearwood Golf Club.

Reading chief Nigel Howe—who recently spoke about his role under the new Thai consortium—also told GetReading:

I’m still working full steam ahead on Bearwood. It’s a listed park and gardens so getting planning has been very difficult.

"We are getting there and we are hopeful of getting permission in the next month or so. It will go to a committee meeting eventually.

"We have done so much work. Our costs on it are well into six figures. It’s a very big project and we have the managers in this building [Madejski Stadium] ready to go."

The likes of Jake Cooper, Niall Keown, Aaron Kuhl, Ryan Edwards and Jake Taylor have all graduated from the academy in recent years and have clocked up a number of minutes this season. The club will be hoping for even more success stories with this new training ground.