Friday 5 December 2014 16:40, UK
Next year, Hitchin Town will celebrate its 150th year as a football club. If the trustees of Top Field - where the Canaries have played their home games since their formation as Hitchin FC in 1865 - get their way then it could be their last.
That is why from 12.30pm this Saturday, I will be joining a march to fight against a proposal that in the words of Canaries stalwart and former manager, Andy Melvin will see the club “sold down the river,” by its trustees, the Cow Commoners.
That is why I have signed a petition as part of the Save HTFC campaign, a petition that asks the Government’s charities regulator “to investigate why this Trust has agreed to exchange the football ground at Top Field, with an estimated value of £15million for a piece of land in the Stevenage Road with an estimated value of £200,000".
At a meeting last month Andy told a packed house: “They have sold the club down the river – they have sold the town of Hitchin down the river. If a Tesco store is built here it will be the death of the town. If Hitchin Town is re-located to the Stevenage Road site it will be the death of the football club.”
To add insult to injury, nobody at the club has been consulted, spoken to, or even remotely taken into consideration.
“We have never been involved in discussions about the new site. We had no input. We were bullied into this,” he added.
If there was ever a time for the people of their town – my adopted town – to stand and be counted, it is now. If there was ever a time to help shape the future of Hitchin and help to maintain the distinctive character that has brought us and kept us here it is now. December 6 is the day and this march is our statement of intent.
We need to keep the club, the field. Change is often good, often necessary, but not here, not this time.
We need to keep the club, the field. Change is often good, often necessary, but not here, not this time.
And we are not alone. Prospective parliamentary candidate Rachel Burgin has told the protesters that she is behind us every step of the way while my friends and colleagues Scott Minto and Gaizka Mendieta have also offered their support.
I am a relative new boy to Hitchin but that doesn’t make me any less keen to support local causes particularly those that preserve the unique character of the town.
And what I feel above all is a sense of an injustice about what is being done here. Hitchin have in one form or another been playing at Top Field for around 150 years. They should be allowed to remain there and not be yet another small fish bullied and eventually sacrificed in the all-enveloping net that is naked commercialism.
That’s why I will be on the march on Saturday and that’s why I would urge you to join us as we resist all efforts to remove Hitchin town from its historic home.
The march starts at Butts Close opposite the Fishpond Road ground at 12.30pm before making its way through Brand Street, Bancroft, Fishponds Road and back to Butts Close.
Everyone is then invited to watch, free of charge, the Canaries’ league match against Poole Town. See you there.
