Licensing Bill hits Local Sports clubs

SPORTS CLUBS WILL GO OUT OF BUSINESS BECAUSE OF GOVERNMENT BROKEN PROMISES, SAYS HUGH ROBERTSON

Many sports clubs will either go out of business or have less money to spend on promoting sport to young people as a result of broken promises made during the passing of the Government’s Licensing Bill says Shadow Sports Minister Hugh Robertson, the MP for Faversham and Mid Kent.

“The result of these broken promises will be large cost increases that many clubs simply cannot afford”, he said.

During the passage of the Licensing Bill through Parliament, the Conservative Party raised the issue of increased licensing costs for sports clubs and small community clubs. Some clubs will not be able to afford the increases, and will shut down, and other clubs will have to spend capital earmarked for other purposes – such as youth sport and development. Yet Sports Minister Richard Caborn made the following commitment:

“Most sports clubs will fall at the lower end of these fees”

However, since the outline costs were published on 21 February, it emerges that some clubs will have to pay as much as £50,000 for the new licences.

The issue is due to be debated in Parliament this week.

Reaction from the sports community has been unanimously critical:-

1. Howard Wells, the Chair of CCPR, the national organisation representing sports clubs said: “It is completely unacceptable to devastate the British sporting landscape so that the government can appear tough on crime. The effect is likely to drive sports clubs out of business.”

2. Many sports National Governing Bodies, such as the ARA, ECB, HA, CTA and RYA, have complained vociferously. The British Equestrian Federation have written to the Minister for Sport to protest that both Burleigh and Badminton Horse Trials could now be forced to pay £50,000 each for new licenses – money that would otherwise go to develop the sport at grassroots level.

3. Macknade Cricket Club (in Hugh Robertson’s constituency) Marketing Manager, Ben Jonathan Martin, has written to him complaining that the new rates would: “unfairly penalise cricket clubs because it means that they are categorised in the same way as commercial organisations – large nightclubs, pubs and hotels – for the purposes of the fees. Whereas large commercial organisations will be able to offset fees against their sizeable profits, we will lose vital income that helps keep this club alive.”

The issue is due to be debated in Parliament this week.

Hugh said: “The government has broken the specific undertaking it made during
the passage of the bill. The result will be that many sports clubs will either go out of business, stop running a bar or have less money to spend on promoting their sport to young people.

“It is dishonest and it is an absolute disaster for sport.”