3:00pm Monday 22nd March 2010
By Sonia Elks
WIVENHOE Town FC have celebrated being let back into their ground after a two-week lock-out.
Now the club, nicknamed the Dragons, wants compensation for loss of earnings and alleged damage to locks at the Broad Lane stadium.
They have also called for owners Colchester Council to lease them the ground directly, cutting their ties with the Wivenhoe and District Sporting Facilities Trust which shut them out.
Andrew Nightingale, trust chairman, issued a statement, sympathising with the staff, players and supporters, but adding that the administration of the football club forced the trust into the action it took.
Committee members claim they found internal locks had been smashed when they re-entered the building.
Doug Frame, the club’s vice-chairman, said: “It has cost us money over the time we have been closed down, and this is obviously money a club this size can’t afford to lose.
“We will be going for compensation over the issues of the damage and being locked out. It is going to be around £5,000.”
Mr Frame said there were concerns about future relations with the trust, saying: “They have behaved like a bunch of bully boys, and never taken an objective view of the situation.”
He called for the landowner, Colchester Council, to lease the stadium directly to the club.
He said: “It means you won’t have these problems [with the trust] and we can then go out and get funding to improve the site.”
Speaking to supporters, Mr Frame promised: “It’s going to be business as usual next week.”
Nicolas Murphy Wymark, one of the protest’s organisers, said: “I think the trust needs to listen to the community and consider becoming directly elected.
“If they listened to the community, we would not be here today”.
The club was locked out over an alleged non-payment of nearly £10,000 in rent, a sum the club contests. The trust also said it has concerns about the management of the site. It says unsecured electrical boxes and asbestos were found after it inspected the site.
Mr Nightingale, trust chairman, could not be contacted over the weekend. He gave a statement on Friday saying the trust would comply with a court order to hand over the keys.
He said: “We have every sympathy with the coaching staff, the players and the supporters. I can understand why they want to express their feelings, however, the fact remains the administration of the football club have declined to pay the rent which has forced us into the action we took.”
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