Hello, this is FC Clacton Community Benefit Society...

Our Club was founded in 1892 & moved to Rush Green Road in 1987, with a 99 year Lease from TDC. New owners took over in 2006, inheriting a mess & found that since 2004 the Lease had been put in a different company name.

Without a Lease in the Club name, we could not apply for grants.

In full consultation with all partners, including TDC, our name was changed to FC Clacton in 2007. A new not-for-profit entity was created in that name to run the Club & we were assured the Lease would be put into the new name, but this was never done.

We have spent the last 18 years fighting for this.

There have been occasions when we were close. In 2017 TDC did agree to a perfect new Lease for us & we both signed formal Heads of Terms, but TDC went back on their word & no Lease was forthcoming.

In 2023 we were offered a much-changed Lease that TDC insisted was also backdated 5 years, which we could not agree to. We complained & TDC promised a compromise, which never materialised.

In 2024 without any warning, TDC served notice for us to vacate by May 1st 2025.

TDC insist they want possession in order to put the ground out to tender, which we can apply for; but this is a ridiculous proposition that may work for other TDC assets, but cannot work for us.

The minute we left the ground we would have to resign from the Leagues we compete in & then if we won the Tender, we would come back into the League the following August at a much lower level.

We also have so much more going on than just the first team, which would all be cancelled. All our youth initiatives & Community work based at the Club would no longer take place.

Plus, the ground is on a former landfill site & needs full-time ground staff to keep it remotely playable, so we would return to a jungle that would take years to get playable again!

The Club could not survive without a ground.

On being served the notices we immediately sent an offer, which was acknowledged but ignored. Other letters including from our solicitor were also ignored.

On May 1st we would have been evicted & the Club would not survive, leaving us no choice but to fight through the Court.

Our Court fees so far total around £30,000, TDC have no doubt spent a similar sum of ratepayer money & it is all such a waste.

We have urged TDC to meet us to try to resolve matters & avoid this costly legal battle, but that have so far refused. We will keep trying everything we can to get the new Lease we desperately need & have been promised.

We will keep trying to meet TDC to find a way forward & avoid further costs, but until that happens we desperately need help to fund our ongoing legal fees in this fight to secure the new Lease we are legally entitled to & keep the Club in existence.

Every penny will be used to try to keep the Club alive & we are incredibly grateful for every single donation, however large or small .

Thank you