MORE setbacks hit the relationship between a council and football club in Berkeley as a key member of the football club’s working group walked out of a meeting.

The chances of a resolve between Berkeley Town Council and Berkeley Football Club seemed to grow even more distant at a meeting on Tuesday with arguments and disagreements continuing to stifle progress.

Leading member of the football club’s working group Mark Edwards walked out of the meeting saying: “I thought you were joking when you said it was item 28. I don’t know why you couldn’t have just brought it forward.”

Mark, Tony and Diane Edwards of BFC attended the full meeting of the council to discuss the latest developments made between working groups from both parties.

At a meeting between members from both sides on Thursday, February 26, Cllr Mike Studden had suggested that – instead of leasing the Pavilion (clubhouse) to the club – the council could retain control and work with BFC while obtaining grants and making improvements themselves.

Most of the discussion between the club and the council occurred in the public discussion section of the meeting.

Mark said: “After going back to the committee at the football club I think we’re all in agreement that the lease was going nowhere.

“We’re happy to close it and move on, following Mike’s proposal to support what we’re going to do.

“We’re here today to throw our support behind that proposal.”

Unfortunately for club members this declaration seemed to come as a complete surprise to some of the councillors.

Cllr Liz Ashton said: “I thought this was about sorting out the lease. Not that I’m opposed to anything – I’m just completely bemused.”

Cllr Studden tried to explain the situation to those councillors that hadn’t been informed.

“We did as we were mandated and went to discuss the lease with the football club. At the end of the meeting I asked what it is they want; what they’re going to do.

“I suggested we could think about a better way to deliver what they want, and that was as far as it went. I didn’t promise them anything. It’s an idea. It’s a vision.”

Some councillors were unhappy that the groups appeared to have moved away from resolving the issues with the lease.

Cllr Fraser Brown said: “We could have come to a compromise at that meeting but certain councillors here just completely blocked it. This is turning into a disgusting disgrace.

“We’ve given them nothing. I feel ashamed and I apologise to [BFC]. We should be acting as a council, not sorting out a football club; we should support them.

“They were happy to compromise and [certain council members] have done everything possible to stop that from happening.”

The discussion veered into further bickering between councillors and members of the club before being wrapped up to proceed with the full meeting.

The issue was to be formally discussed as item 28 on the agenda. Despite requests from the Edwards family to bring the item forward, it remained in its spot at the end of the meeting.

After about half an hour Mark walked out of the meeting commenting that he couldn’t understand why they didn’t bring the item forward. He was followed shortly thereafter by Tony and Diane.

When the issue was eventually discussed at the end of the three hour meeting the council voted to disband their football club working group and instead have the issue led by their leisure and recreation committee.

For the history of BFC's ongoing problems with the council visit gazetteseries.co.uk.