Gagan Mohindra MP, was the independent chairman and he made sure that the community got the opportunity to give their views and ask questions and get answers in public. The club thanks all of those who attended.

The football club chairman Steve Davis welcomed everyone. He made the point that during his 6 years on the BSGCA, the town had missed out on a six-figure sum in football grants. This was through the continual refusal to let the club have even a 10-year lease, despite long leases being granted to the other two BSGCA tenants (the tennis club 50 years & the cricket club). Our current lease runs for the 3 years to 2023.

Vice chairman Benny Mitchell, who has followed Steve in serving football on the BSGCA for two years, explained that sport at Bourne End was just a pawn in an attempted 220 acre, 1,100 home property development proposal by Thakeham and the BSGCA. He asked for the club to be left alone at Broadwater instead of becoming collateral damage. Nobody from Berkhamsted Raiders, the gym club or rugby club, spoke to justify the destruction of Green Belt land, or the sale of the football ground to add facilities for those three clubs on the land that the developer may donate in Bourne End.

John Waller set the scene by repeating his amusing presentation, originally made to the U3A history group on the centenary of Berkhamsted Comrades. It covered the castle, war, getting use of the ground and famous past players over the 100 years and much useful background.

Grant Hastie ran through the history of the ground and fundraising. Earl Brownlow allowed some club use, but the main occupier of the Sports Ground was Berkhamsted School until 1914, when they got their own ground in Chesham Road. On his death in 1922, his executors put the ground up for sale. An Appeal Committee, led by four local clubs including the football club, had a two-year struggle to raise from the Berkhamsted public, donations, specifically to acquire the ground for sport and keep it for the town permanently. The committee moved the money from that trust in 1924, into the not-for-profit company that is now BSGCA, who bought the land in 1924.

Town and District Councillor Garrick Stevens explained that Thakeham have told Dacorum Council that if they do not put their scheme in the next version of the Dacorum Local Plan, they will take their case higher, to the Planning Inspectors.

Berkhamsted Town Clerk Tony Noakes explained that Broadwater was the first time ever that the Town Council had submitted an Asset of Community Value application in its own name. The result is expected this week.

The landlords of Broadwater, the BSGCA chose not to attend. Instead, the MP read out a letter from their chairman Paul Forster. It explained that the BSGCA would debate, if and when the Thakeham proposal made the Dacorum Council local plan. A member of the public described the letter as disingenuous and held the Berkhamsted public in contempt.

Some other points from the floor included:

The B in BSGCA is for Berkhamsted -not Bourne End;

The football club serves the community of Berkhamsted-which is not in Bourne End;

Non-league football clubs are not viable at Berko’s level (or often at all), when they are moved so far outside the town centre which generates their current income;

Post-pandemic there is a realisation of the importance of sport and recreation in town centres;

Three generations enjoy watching football at Broadwater together, but like many will not get to Bourne End;

There is a climate emergency and the massive car parking plan for Bourne End shows how unfriendly the proposals are environmentally compared to walking to sport facilities in the town centre. Also, joining settlements like Bourne End and Berkhamsted is contrary to normal planning policy that protects Green Belt land and contrary to everything that Dacorum Council have told the people of Bourne End over many years.