Still no park for Curley Park.

Saturday 29th August

In spite of exhaustive efforts by a lot of people including yours truly, the negotiations between Connaught School and Curley Park Rangers Football Club have stalled over the summer with the result that the club is still unable to use the school facility for some club fixtures.

While the principle of this would appear to be simple, the practice is in fact very much different. There is a land transfer between two local authorities: a new lease: a user: a landlord comprising several different elements incluidng LEA, school & school & community governors: two local authorities with several associated departmnents including leisure, legal and estates - and thats before any of your local councillors are involved.
Clearly, the requirement of the school - and more accurately, school pupils - is of paramount importance, but the lack of an agreement that in effect simply limits the usage previously enjoyed by the club for over twenty years is extremely frustrating.
This is made more so by the fact that the matter was first raised in April.

Now that the Michaelmas term has begun, I am, with the assistance of some council members and some first class council officers, pressing the parties - and the decision makers at the school school in particular - to try to expedite matters.
We shall see.


PS - Congratulations to Curley Park Rangers for having been awarded the 'FA Charter Standard Community Club' status. I'm more of a rugby man than a football man, but I understand that this is the highest level FA award that a club of this size can attain. Its great to see a local club, attending to the requirements of local kids, doing so well. Well done!