A CRUCIAL meeting tonight may decide the future of Berkeley Football Club – after four years of struggles between the council and club to work out a lease.

Berkeley Town Council will meet with members of Berkeley Football Club to discuss a draft lease on the clubhouse - known locally as the Pavilion.

Parties on both sides have been left frustrated with the length of time it has taken for the situation to reach a resolve.

Treasurer of the club Diane Edwards, along with her husband Tony and son Mark, have been involved with the town’s football club for most of their lives.

Members of the club are eager to obtain ownership or a long term lease on the Pavilion which would allow them to apply for a range of grants.

When the Pavilion - which includes a main room, toilets and changing rooms – came on the market, the club expressed their interest to the council.

When the building was subsequently removed from the market, an offer of a lease was extended to the club members in around 2011. Members currently pay rent on a week by week basis.

Keen to lease the Pavilion if purchase was not an option – a working group from the committee was assembled to meet with a similar group from the town council to hash out terms and conditions.

Developments seemed positive in February last year when a set of terms and conditions for a lease were agreed upon by both sides.

These outlined rent payments on a lease of 25 years, and saw the council offer to pay a fixed sum of £2,000 a year towards the club’s utility bills.

Also agreed upon was that the council would maintain the field, trees and boundaries at the club.

By November a full draft lease had been written up. The council, however, with new councillors who had arrived after the beginning of negotiations with the club, no longer gave full support to the lease.

Since then, with proceedings stalled, the council and club have been locked in a stalemate, with the most recent development being a draft of terms and conditions that withdraws the original offer of funding towards utilities.

In its place is a grant system, which would require the club to apply for money to the council, something members don’t feel offers them a level of security with which they are comfortable.

Mark Edwards said: “I feel like I’m on the verge of giving up but I’m not about to do that just yet.

“We just don’t want to spend another penny on this place until we have some reassurance from the council.”

The club has raised funds itself to repaint the Pavilion and add a TV and kitchen equipment.

Their aim is to use the Pavilion as a community centre, insisting their drive for a lease is not just for their own purposes. They currently allow the local youth club to use the building for their meetings free of charge.

Mark added: “It’s not just about us. We want to be in a position where we can use this place for other groups, and hire it out as a function room.”

Cllr Fraser Brown is on the council’s working group and will meet, alongside other councillors, with members of the football club tonight.

He said: “I think we can come to a conclusion. I think we can sort it out. I think we will get there [tonight]. I don’t think that anybody on our council realises just how important sport is.

“I believe it’s the duty of the council to come to some kind of resolve. The argument at the moment is that the club want us to put money towards their utilities for the next three years and I think they need some kind of commitment.

“It’s taken so long because members of the council are dragging their feet. Sport and culture are the only things that we can really influence as a town council, and I think people need to realise that sport is a way of life.

“They need to know that we will back them and this needs to work, one way or another.”