A JUDGE has urged two parties locked in a bitter dispute about a football club’s ground to settle the matter once and for all.

Judge Damien Lochrane yesterday granted Wivenhoe Town FC permission to stay at its Broad Lane ground until at least August, after the club was locked out of the site earlier this month by the trust which runs it.

He urged both sides to seek an amicable solution instead of pressing ahead with court action which will potentially cost the loser thousands of pounds.

Judge Lochrane said: “While these people are bludgeoning each other over the heads in the background, the poor little boys aren’t playing football on Saturdays, and that seems a great shame.”

Wivenhoe and District Sporting Facilities Trust, which manages the Broad Lane stadium and playing fields for the benefit of several different clubs, claims Wivenhoe Town owes it £10,000 in back rent.

It changed the locks at the ground, but club chairman Carl Callan hit back by getting an injunction last week at Chelmsford County Court, which ordered the trust to hand over the keys.

Yesterday at Colchester County Court, Judge Lochrane extended the injunction until a follow-up hearing in August. He ordered Wivenhoe Town to start paying rent at a rate of £320 a month – the equivalent of the £3,808 a year the trust claims it is due – until the dispute is settled.

The judge said the parties should seek to settle the matter through alternate dispute resolution, an informal court process aimed at settling cases without the costs of lengthy hearings.

The proceedings usually involve a paid mediator and cost about £1,500.

He said it was prudent to continue the injunction as the club would potentially be able to claim “substantial damages” if it was denied access to the ground and eventually won the case.

James Horden, representing the trust, said he disputed Mr Callan’s authority to bring the case as he had seen no evidence he had properly been elected as club chairman.

But the judge said: “Somebody has been playing football on your football pitch and holding weddings in your clubhouse. Until we sort it all out, we will go on as before.”