Update on the WTFC lease

The board of Wymondham Town Football Club would like to thank everyone for their kind support in response to the Chairman Andy Gardiner’s email to the Council on Sunday. Below is the response by the Chairman to the Clerk and the Councillors made this morning by email.

The Clerk stated the lease is not even on this Tuesday’s full council agenda so there’s no point in anyone attending. There is also still no sign of said lease, there will be no negotiation and one councillor, Councillor Holden (Please see leisure and environment minutes of the last meeting on the council website) stated he wanted the football club removed from the meadow and a bandstand erected. I am sure that would be a great idea of a December evening.

The football club will look to hold an open meeting in due course when we hope the people of Wymondham who fought so strongly for the club and the meadow will come along and help us lobby the council when eventually the subject appears on their Agenda. With the lease up for renewal on September 30th it is very clear the Council wish to remove the football club and once again place the future of the Kings Head Meadow in jeopardy.

The Board of Wymondham Town Football Club.

Mr Gurney

A more measured response to your email below.

1/ I find it incredible that with the Kings Head Meadow Lease still not agreed and not even seen by Wymondham Town Football Club Limited that the item does not even appear on the Full Council Agenda for Tuesday Evening. The Council have had 25 years notice that the lease falls due for renewal on October 1st. I suggest looking at the minutes for the Leisure and Environment meeting of 28th May that the lease was not discussed. How do the new “Councillors” know anything about the lease either old or new? We have to pay substantial registration fees for the 2015 / 16 season and we have no agreement on whether we will have a venue after September 30th?

2/ Mr Holden may have the right Idea please put a bandstand on the Meadow and turn it into a park. I mean everyone remembers with fondness the tremendous efforts that Mr Holden put in to save the meadow from an ASDA. It’s  a great shame that the KHM is not on the agenda for Tuesday evening as I have about 400 – 500 people on my mailing list as you well know Mr Gurney who are very much looking forward to putting their alternative point of view to Mr Holden and most not associated with Wymondham Town Football Club.

3/ I know that the Council has gone back to the puppet days of 2011 with the only difference being the place where business is decided being JP’s coffee shop rather than the Queens Head Club room but surely there has to be a meeting at some point.

4/ “Councillor” Hornby Jnr’s proposal for keeping Wymondham informed? Why is this proposal on the agenda they only have to stand outside JP’s and get an update from his dad to know what’s going on.

5/ It is very interesting to note you talk of closer negotiations with Wymondham Town Youth United. I expect you are so ill informed that you do not know they hold all their meetings now at our club house and the Under 19s side of theirs played under the banner of Wymondham Town and at the Kings Head Meadow on a Sunday Morning this last season? Mark Brown our Director of Football managed them.

6/ Also for new councillors especially those non conservatives who got in on a we are listening to Wymondham residents ticket. Mr Gurney and the Town Council previously granted the Youth football club £163,000 to build their changing facility when an absolutely adequate facility conforming to all their needs stands 10 yards from it in Ketts Park Hall? Also as the ground at Ketts Park (ask any grounds man ours is currently the former FA groundsman about the soil and drainage quality)  without a major overhaul is not suited for sport as it’s that heavy. Football is not played in the winter if it rains within 48 hours. Maybe a question should also be why Wymondham Town Council paid a further £73,000 of Wymondham Tax payers money to drain those pitches further and yet again it made no difference which is why it is being looked at again. I expect Mr Holden looked into all this though before he decided to build a bandstand. I am sure with the level of vandalism and drug misuse we have to clear up at KHM the lads who participate in these anti social activities would love a new bandstand (aka 1950s) to play on. Maybe he could organise concerts from Geraldo, and the Radio 2 big band to stimulate young minds!!

In closing we await contact from Mr Mooney as our rep which I am pretty sure will never come. If he was interested he would have wanted to know everything financial etc plus a plan about our club, by now met the board and shown some interest. As he stated at 2 meetings at his house in 2011 and 2012 with myself and Former Councillor and businessman Paul Hawkins that he wanted the football club removed from the meadow I hold no hope for a 132 year old institution.

Contrary to the seemingly all knowing “Councillor Holden” the KHM after the closure of the Kings Head Hotel which owned the meadow was bought by Wymondham Town Council from the brewery circa 1964 with a grant from Norfolk Education Committee. The covenant on that was that it be used for football and social and physical recreation. But what the hec put a bandstand on it that really will appeal to the classes and the young that most of society has forgotten. Still I am absolutely positive that “Councillor Holden can turn up there in the summer months with his panama and Councillor badge on showing what a sound citizen he really is. I will engage all the youths who roam the meadow Ferrell of an evening that if they buy tweed jackets they will really fit in with the younger element of the Council and will be welcomed into Wymondham Society.

We await the lease from Fosters which is in your jurisdiction Mr Gurney

Kindest Regards

Andy Gardiner

Chairman

Wymondham Town Football Club Limited