Seaton Town and Sidmouth Town have both made applications for promotion into the South West Peninsula League, for the 2011/12 season. Both are currently chasing Devon and Exeter league, Premier Division honours and would need to complete the current campaign by finishing in the top two, and the have their ground accepted by the SWP league management committee to enable them to make the step up.

The Board of the South West Peninsula League have released details of the teams who have applied for promotion within the football pyramid. A press release issued on Friday (March 4) read: “The Board of the South West Peninsula League were delighted to learn at their March 3 meeting, held at Saltash United AFC that a record 15 applications for promotion had been received by the required date of the 1st March.

Of these applications five are from clubs currently playing in either Division 1 East or Division 1 West (Step 7 Divisions) who wish to be considered for promotion to the Premier Division (Step 6).

Subject to the agreed requirements the board will look to promote one from each of East and West to Premier.

To determine eligibility a ground grading visit will be required and clubs need to finish in first or second in their respective divisions.

Nine applications have been received from clubs currently playing in the feeder league system. Subject to agreed requirements the board will look to fill up to four vacancies that currently exist within East and West. Only one club per feeder league can be accepted but it should be noted that the nine applications are representative of four different feeder leagues.

To determine eligibility a ground grading visit will be required and clubs need to finish in first or second in their respective divisions or if finishing in third or fourth consideration can be made if the sides above them in the table are Reserve teams. The league would not be looking below fourth in any circumstance.

One application has been received by a club currently not in the feeder league system, Tiverton Town AFC wish to enter a reserve team. This application is treated differently from normal feeder league applications and can only be considered if AFTER all other movement has been dealt with a vacancy still exists. Should all spaces be allocated their application will automatically fail but if a vacancy still exists the board will decide if their application warrants the filling of that vacancy (or not).

In all cases the timeline is now that the Ground Grading Sub-Committee will visit all 15 applicant clubs during April, the grading committee must then recommend, or not, a clubs application to the May board meeting and that recommendation together with final league table finishing positions will be presented to the May board meeting to determine movement.

It should be noted that the board expect to relegate the bottom two clubs from Premier to the East and West divisions this season but do not intend relegating clubs from East and West this season. (When the compliment of 18 clubs has been reached relegation will be re-introduced). No decisions on the boundary line of East and West can be considered by the board until such time as applicant clubs have been accepted or refused.

Full list of applicant clubs:

From Step 7 to Step 6: Budleigh Salterton (Division 1 East), Callington Town (Division 1 West), Camelford (Division 1 West), Newquay (Division 1 West) and

Stoke Gabriel (Division 1 East)

From Feeder Leagues to Step 7: Brixham United (South Devon League), Clyst Valley (Devon & Exeter League), Helston Athletic (Cornwall Combination League),

Newtown (Devon & Exeter League), Seaton Town (Devon & Exeter League), Sidmouth Town (Devon & Exeter League), St Dennis (East Cornwall Premier League), St Martins (Devon & Exeter League), Sticker (East Cornwall Premier League)

From Outside Pyramid to Step 7: Tiverton Town