Cray Wanderers FC Chairman Gary Hillman says he is bitterly disappointed in the way the club has been treated after LB Bromley rejected the club’s planning application for a new ground at Sandy Lane in St Paul’s Cray.

Cray Wanderers who face being homeless in 2014 when their ground-sharing arrangement expires at Bromley FC heard at the LB Bromley planning committee meeting on 20 September that their application had failed.

Mr Hillman, who has been chairman since 1994, proposed a stadium at Sandy Lane that was future proofed for the team potentially gaining two further promotions (as they have done during the last ten years) and also a 4G pitch to expand the club’s community work in the Crays. Additionally there was enabling development to the minimum extent necessary to pay for the new facilities.

Mr Hillman said: “I feel it’s a disgrace how the club and all the community who supported the application have been treated.

“We are the oldest football club in London and the second oldest in the world but the planning committee deciding our future didn’t even get our name right and started calling us Cray Valley Wanderers FC on the night.

“They didn’t have a clue what division we play in; what facilities are needed to play at Ryman Premier (step 3) level; why we needed the enabling development: there are not any other alternative sites; ours is a Non-Profit development with a need in the area for everything that was proposed.

“They brought up many items that were technically wrong: for example, they misunderstood the category of ground that we need to play at; we had explained everything clearly in our submission but they still spoke inaccurately about things like we wanted to extend the bus route from Tesco; and the footpaths.

“They tried to dismiss what I believe is the biggest ever expression of public support for a planning application in Bromley of nearly 1,500 letters and just a handful of objections, and that is a real insult: there was no one in attendance from the public that wanted to take the allowed opportunity to make a 5-minute speech to object against us.”

Mr Hillman continued: “We've been working on this planning application for 5 years now and LB Bromley has never once contacted us to discuss how we can sort out the problem of Cray Wanderers FC becoming homeless in 2014.

“At the start they said we should give them the evidence for the “very special circumstances” for the development to go ahead, and that’s what we have done.

“They made us do a Full EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) and numerous other surveys from various independent specialist consultants which came to approx. £150,000 for us".

“The result of this was to prove that this development would benefit the community and there were the “very special circumstances“ to grant planning permission but then at the meeting they didn’t take any notice of that."

“Over the last 12 months the Localism Act has come in and it is meant to give people in their area a bigger say in what happens, but that hasn’t made any difference in this case.

“There was also the similar planning application scheme for Kent Cricket Club In Beckenham where LB Bromley granted planning on playing fields for enabling development.

“So if it’s good enough for Beckenham why isn’t it good enough for The Crays!!

“They have totally dismissed the success of Dartford FC, Maidstone FC and numerous other successful sporting development around the country.

Mr Hillman added: “When I first started working on the application I was told unofficially by a leading Town Planner to accidentally leave the gate open and as Cray has the biggest gypsy population in Europe the creation of a new ‘Dale Farm’ would be an easier way to get our planning consent.

“But we decided to do all the proper way, and now we have just got it thrown back in our face and everyone at the club is devastated.

“We know that the landowners William Nash PLC are also disappointed. They wanted this to be a legacy for their company being such a big part of Cray history and culture. They also have to act in their shareholders’ best interests so with this development being refused by LB Bromley we really don’t know what will happen to the land - we assume it may be sold to the highest bidder and therefore anyone can buy it and anything could happen.

“The only glimmer of hope for Cray Wanderers was raised by a Labour Party Councillor (Mr Peter Fookes) who said the Council need to help us and talk to us for the first time to solve the problem so I await the phone call whilst the time bomb is ticking down to Cray Wanderers FC being homeless in 2014.”