Angry parents react to clubs’ cash dispute

Lancing Rangers and Lancing United.

Around 90 young players from seven age groups have been told to find somewhere else to train after Rangers refused to pay £40 a week to train at Croshaw.

Parents and volunteers are split over which club is in the wrong.

One woman, who volunteers with Rangers, said she was unhappy the club was being asked to pay for facilities they had used for free for many years.

She said the facilities United were offering were not worth the £40 weekly charge.

“Why should kids have to pay to play on a public park?” she said.

“What are we paying for? We are paying for kids to use a toilet. Having been part of Lancing Rangers for 24 years, I’m so disappointed.”

She said the club’s money was always invested ‘straight back into the kids’.

One mum with two children who play for Rangers said she would prefer it if the club increased its fees to cover the cost of renting Croshaw.

“Why isn’t the money in the club’s bank account being spent on our kids?” she said, adding that 220 children were each paying £40 a year to sign on, at total of £8,800.

Speaking on Thursday, when last week’s Herald went on sale, she said everybody involved with the club was ‘really upset’ by the news.

United are charging Rangers to train on their ground to help recoup the costs of their new £60,000 changing rooms and to cover the cost of maintaining the ground, which is now their responsibility.

Lancing Parish Council discussed the dispute at a meeting last Wednesday and decided that clerk Colin Hunt should prepare a report for councillors to consider at the next meeting, as the issue was ‘very complicated’.

Mr Hunt added that until now, Rangers had been using Croshaw without council permission.

Chairman James Butcher said the final say on whether the fee being charged was fair or not would rest with the parish council.