THE trust which runs Wivenhoe’s Broad Lane sports ground has scotched claims thousands of pounds it received from a food manufacturer went missing.

Supporters of Wivenhoe Town FC, which is embroiled in a row over the football club’s tenancy at Broad Lane, have accused the Wivenhoe and District Sports Facilities Trust of poor financial management.

After claiming trustees failed to account for how they spent a £16,000 gift from Yakult, which makes probiotic drinks, trust chairman Andrew Nightingale has revealed full details of the deal, in an effort to set the record straight.

He said one of the trustees was an academic and signed up to do medical research for Yakult about sport and young people.

The Wivenhoe under-18s youth team took part in experiments as part of the project, and Yakult paid a £16,000 fee, of which the trustee received £12,000 for doing the work.

Wivenhoe under-18s got £3,000 for team funds, as a reward for helping out, and the other football clubs involved at Broad Lane received about £300 each.

Mr Nightingale said: “It is all set out in our accounts and I think, as a trust, this is the kind of thing we should be doing in the interests of Broad Lane and the clubs which use it.”

Suspicion over the Yakult money was one reason why Wivenhoe Town’s officials say they were reluctant to pay the £10,000 in rent for Broad Lane, which the trust claims it was owed.

The dispute reached a head when the trust locked the gates of the ground and the club hit back, last week, by gaining a court injunction, which allowed them back in.

There is now a stand-off, as Wivenhoe Town say there is no evidence they owe the £10,000. Meanwhile, the trust is refusing to deal with the club’s administration.

Wivenhoe Town chairman Carl Callan said he believed the way forward was for the club to lease the ground directly from the owner, Colchester Council.

He added: “We believe the offer to grant the club a long lease would allow the club to bring on board investors who were prepared to put money into the site last year, but would not deal with the trustees.

“It would allow the site to be developed into something everyone in the area would be proud of.”

But Mr Nightingale said: “The club is fully aware we could not have granted a lease to them as our own lease does not allow us to do so.”