The petition posted on the 38 degrees website was temporarily suspended after 450 plus people have shown their support by signing the petion in just over a week. This, they state, is due to third party correspondence claiming that there is a “misleading claim in it”.
The claim being referred to is: “As a result of a lack of response by the Charity Commission for the lease terms to be met, this has resulted in Heineken, as the freeholders, taking possession of the Old Spotted Dog”.
We amended the statement to read: “
As a result of a lack of response by the Charity Commission for two years to pay the rent due, this has resulted in Heineken, as the freeholders, taking possession of the Old Spotted Dog.
The Charity Commission currently holds the bank account of Newham Community Leisure Limited, the charity who held the lease for the ground and is currently under investigation by the Charity Commission as a result of third party correspondence from the same group of individuals who have also put an injunction on the charity preventing a members voluntary liquidation, which would have paid off debts and provided further monies to develop the Old Spotted Dog. This group claimed that the ground would be sold, which was not the case as it is neither owned by Newham Community Leisure Limited or Clapton Football Club.“
Two days later, this detail, which certain parties don’t want to hear, was removed as it does not suit their agenda, which has always been to take over or destroy the club and put themselves into the Old Spotted Dog.
The facts that have led to this situation are:
In 2007, the Charity Commission de-registered Newham Community Leisure Limited (the organisaion that holds the lease for the Old Spotted Dog Ground) as its income was less than £5,000 per annum.
In 2012-13, after third party correspondence from Andrew Barr (an ex secretary of Clapton Football Club) and others, the Charity Commission reinstated Newham Community Leisure and immediately started an investigation.
In 2014, the Charity Commission seized control of Newham’s accounts and all requests for payments of the charity’s invoices and outgoings, went through the Charity Commission.
The Charity Commission held a meeting at the Old Spotted Dog Ground in 2015, as part of the investigation they started in 2012-13, and were provided with accounts of the charity and other documents, both at the meeting and afterwards. In spite of stating they would come back to Newham, on any issues and details of how things could be sorted if needed, nothing more was heard from the Charity Commission until approximately another two years, when further third party correspondence from Andrew Barr and others instigated further ongoing investigations.
To this day, the Charity Commission holds the bank account of Newham, even though the account has sufficient funds to meet the obligations of the charity, as can be seen from the statement below (confidential details deliberately covered).
To complicate matters further, in 2017, Newham Community Leisure Limtied applied for a Members Voluntary Liquidation, with the intention of clearing debts and raising monies to invest into the Old Spotted Dog Ground. An injunction was then taken out, with Andrew Barr and others claiming that Newham was planning to sell the ground. They knew this was not true but continued in their campaign.
Given everything said so far, how is it that Newham could sell the ground when it only has a lease agreement (those looking to take out the injunction were given an undertaking that the ground would not be sold, but chose to ignore this)? Clapton Football Club also does not own the ground, so how would it plan to sell it?
However, As a result of an injunction made against the liquidator, resulting in no action being able to be taken on any side, one of the creditors subsequently applied for compulsory liquidation of Newham and was granted it by the courts.
These are the facts. At the end of the day, the Charity Commission has taken no action to pay the rent. The Liquidator, (who has been threatened as third parties contacted his professional body making allegations deliberately to suggest improprietary, which was totally unfounded), has taken no action. This has resulted in Clapton Football Club and Hackney Wicks who ground share at the Old Spotted Dog without a ground to play their 2019-20 home fixtures, because the freeholders had had enough.
Heineken have been left in a very difficult situation, with thousands owed. Having contacted them when the ground was possessed we were told “We (Heineken) have been contacting the Charity Commission and the Liquidator for the past two years and we have had no response. We have now drawn a line in the sand and taken this action.”
In the meantime, we can do no more than to put our position. If it is accepted and you are a true supporter of Clapton Football Club, please complete the form at https://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/clapton or here:
