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STATEMENT REGARDING PROPOSED GROUNDSHARE WITH CRAWLEY TOWN |
| from Club Secretary John Lines |
|
I have had a letter from the Ryman
League this week refusing our application to go to Crawley. This is because
Crawley Council are negotiating a new lease with Crawley Town FC which will entail CTFC
running the stadium. As a result, we were told just over a Month ago that it
was logistically impossible to guarantee that games could be played on
consecutive days. This is unacceptable to the Ryman League as, in their words,
'that fixtures could be disrupted and cause prejudice to other member clubs in
the league'. Despite several meetings, we have not been able to resolve this
issue and therefore the negotiations with Crawley Council and CTFC have
ceased. Furthermore, we were led to believe by Persimmon Homes at a meeting a month ago that there would be a strong possibility that we would be able to continue to stay at Queen Street next season if we agreed to their Appeal being withdrawn so as to renegotiate with Horsham Council a new scheme that would be financially beneficial to HFC. This has been the reason for our apparent procrastination over the issues surrounding the end of season celebrations. Sadly, we learned yesterday that despite the Appeal now having been withdrawn, the Board of Persimmon Homes have decided that we must vacate, as previously agreed on the 8th May 2008. Having held up the carrot we are very angry it was withdrawn. So where do we go? In the interests of the club, we have had other contingencies that we have worked on but it would have been unreasonable to become embroiled in detailed negotiation whilst it seemed to all intents and purposes that we had a strong probability of going to Crawley. Now that it is clear this is not the case we are close to agreeing a ground share with another Club that we know is acceptable in principle to The Ryman League and with the Club itself. We are hopeful that contracts will be agreed and confirmed within the next two to three weeks but until then it is quite proper that the location is kept completely confidential and speculation avoided. I hope the supporters of Horsham FC accept that Frank King, myself and The Board are working to fulfil the best long term interests of the Club under difficult circumstances. |
|
6th March 2008 |