PONTYPOOL RFC will announce next week that they intend to leave their historic home.

Pooler are holding a special meeting at the Parkway Hotel in Cwmbran on Tuesday evening (6.30pm) when supporters will be told about the club’s intention to leave Pontypool Park, their home since 1945.

Pooler, who celebrate their 150th anniversary in the coming season, are looking at alternative sites in the town to build a purpose-built venue after being plagued by antisocial behaviour at their Torfaen Council-owned ground.

Pooler will remain at the ground for the coming Championship season as they attempt to return to the Premiership and no timeframe has been set for a move.

South Wales Argus:

The club, bankrolled by owner and chairman Peter Jeffreys, have been in talks with the council about developing Pontypool Park but matters have come to a standstill.

That is a source of frustration for the Jeffreys family, who have been looking to fence off the famous ground in the public park before investing in it.

They have investigated installing a 3G pitch that could be used by the community, along with building a new stand and facilities.

However, no investment would take place without safeguards surrounding antisocial behaviour in the area.

Chief executive Ben Jeffreys, son of Peter, has made frequent appeals for help dealing with vandalism, arson and graffiti.

Club volunteers have previously found screwdrivers, nails, knife blades and glass sticking out of the pitch while there has been human faeces in the stands and seats have been ripped out.

“It’s devastating. We know how much the ground means to the club’s supporters,” Ben Jeffreys Tweeted last week after posting a picture of damage.

“It means everything to us too. It breaks us to see the how much the venue has deteriorated. We had the funds ready to change it all. Shame.”

Last November Pooler were given hope when councillors discussed building fences surrounding the rugby section of the park.

They backed the club’s plans to build a fence and appeared keen to overcome problems with a historic Pontypool Park covenant, which requires all areas to remain accessible to the public.

However, Pooler have been frustrated by the lack of progress and are now set to announce the intention to leave the famous ground that was home to Ray Prosser’s famous sides of the 1970s and 80s and where they hosted New South Wales in 1927, Australia in 1981 and 1984, New Zealand in 1989 and Fiji in 2002.