Dear Club Members

 I am very sorry to have to inform you that the Club lost its appeal against the Council’s decision to refuse us permission to expand our grounds.  This is a bitterly disappointing outcome of 3 years’ hard work to try and ensure that we have sufficient pitches for our future needs.

The decision and rationale may be seen at http://www.pcs.planningportal.gov.uk/pcsportal/fscdav/READONLY?OBJ=COO.2036.300.12.1232501&NAME=/DECISION.pdf under reference 2101649.

Sadly, the Inspector decided that flowers were more important than children – it’s a funny old world and I do seriously question whether as a Society we have our values totally out of kilter sometimes.

We gave it our very best shot and I would especially like to pay tribute to the outstanding effort put in by Mark Dodds and Stan Gallagher, who ran the appeal on behalf of the Club and represented us at the hearing.

The Executive Committee will be meeting shortly to discuss where we go from here, but I think we have to accept that expanding on the current site will not be possible in the foreseeable future.

This is a very sad day for sport, for CCYFC and above all for our children.

Clifton Melvin

Club Chairman