Hillians ask fans for help

Burgess Hill Town Chair Kevin Newell has asked fans of his club to contact their local council and protest their decision to insist on rent payments during this time of crisis.

Kevin explained that he wrote to Mid Sussex District Council- their landlords at the Green Elephants Stadium- when the season was terminated, asking that rent payments were cancelled until the club could play once more. With no gate receipts- and perhaps just as importantly no hire fees and bar income- for the foreseeable future, the club have since applied for and received a government grant which has been made available for those in the hospitality and leisure industry, but the council have insisted that rent is paid as normal despite the club's difficulties.

Speaking to the club website, Kevin outlined the problem :

"Assuming we don’t start again until September (at the earliest), that means that over half of our grant will go back to the Council. We have no other income and what we are left with would not be sufficient to sustain our ongoing expenses if we couldn’t call on our army of volunteers.

I don’t believe the grant initiative was intended to protect the revenue stream of District Council’s, as Mid Sussex DC has claimed, so I’d like to ask you to contact your local Councillor by all and any means to ask them to reconsider their decision.

The future of our club is at risk, please do what you can to help.”

For details of how you can contact the council, and for more on this story, please visit the club website- here.