“First and foremost, I hope you are keeping safe and staying in. I don’t like being told how to live my life any more than the next man, so I want these current restrictions over; the best way to achieve that is to follow the guidelines and help stop the spread of the virus.

“We have now received our grant, but Mid Sussex DC have refused to suspend the rent and pointed out that we have the grant.”

When football was suspended in March, our income from gate receipts ceased, and when the official lockdown started on the 23rd we lost all of our bar and function room revenue. I immediately wrote to our Landlords, Mid Sussex District Council and explained the situation and asked for our rent to be suspended until we were back playing football. This was before the Government grant initiative to help businesses in the leisure and hospitality sector, as we are, was introduced. We have now received our grant, but Mid Sussex DC have refused to suspend the rent and pointed out that we have the grant. 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. You can find a list of Councillors on the Council’s website or by calling them on 01444 458166. They can also be reached via email at: enquiries@midsussex.gov.uk

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