THE Bluebirds Trust, and therefore Barrow AFC’s supporters, will play a full role in determining the club’s future now they officially own a stake in the club, according to chairman Paul Hornby.

The Trust handed over the £50,000 they raised over a four-month period for their Share Contribution Scheme before the home game against Harrogate Town last Saturday.

That has allowed them to purchase a ten per cent stake in AFC, as part of the consortium that owns the club, while it has also given them a representative on the board of directors.

Levi Gill became their first-ever director after he was voted in unopposed at the Trust’s last meeting, earlier in the month, and he will put forward their say in how Barrow moves forward as a club whenever the board get together.

The board at the Holker Street club includes co-owners Hornby, Tony Shearer, Mark Hetherington and Kristian Wilkes.

Hornby told BBC Radio Cumbria: “Levi is the Trust representative and we’ve already said that we need to harness Levi and we need to encourage him, we need to engage him.

“It’s not a soundbite, it’s not just a person on the board as a whim or a fob, Levi is going to be very much part of this.

“Going forward, there are so many things we’ve got to talk about – we’ve got our end-of-season dinner we’ve got to discuss, we’re talking about maybe having events throughout the summer, there’s building projects, there’s maintenance, there is all sorts of things we need to talk about together.

“There are initiatives to raise money and bring more funds into the club.

“I don’t know where we’re going to find the time, but it is exciting and it’s really good to have these guys on board because they’ve worked so hard.

“It’s a rollercoaster being in charge of a football club – you have your good days and you have your bad days – and the fact you can share that burden can really help us push on.”

The Bluebirds Trust will work alongside the club trying to generate funds in joint ventures, as well as running their own projects, and will continue to help getting supporters to away games.

A by-product of them getting involved in the way AFC is run has been a jump in their membership.

Trust chairman Steve Herbert said: “We’ve gone from 260 to 450 in about the last six months, which I’m hugely pleased about.

“We need them, we need them to come and work through us and work with us as well, in whatever way, and they do.

“The only thing that will get more people through the gate and get more people coming is if we all work together.

“For any potential skill, or no skill at all, there’s something to somebody to do here and there are not many other places where you can be really part of where you watch football.

“To me, that is the attraction of our football club in Barrow because it’s ours.”