Helen Hayes, MP for Dulwich & West Norwood's historic speech in Parliament.
Taken from the Hansard website.
Dulwich Hamlet Football Club
16 March 2018
Motion made, and Question proposed –
That this House do now
adjourn.—(Amanda Milling.)
2.34 pm
Helen Hayes (Dulwich
and West Norwood) (Lab)
I am grateful for the opportunity to bring to the House
serious issues that threaten the future of my much-loved local football club,
Dulwich Hamlet, and which have relevance for local non-league and league clubs
throughout the country.
I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to my predecessor
as MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, Baroness Jowell of Brixton, whose
involvement with Dulwich Hamlet football club goes back a long way and who I
know is close to the hearts of Dulwich Hamlet supporters. I also thank my right
hon. and learned Friend the Member for Camberwell and Peckham (Ms Harman), in
whose constituency the Champion Hill stadium sits and whose support for this
campaign has been invaluable, and Lord Kennedy of Southwark, who has raised
this issue in the other place and ensured that very few parliamentarians are
unaware of the issues facing Dulwich Hamlet and have not been photographed
wearing the club’s scarf. Finally, I thank the Dulwich Hamlet Supporters’
Trust, Dulwich Hamlet football club, my many constituents who have written to
me about this issue, and the thousands who turn up regularly at Champion Hill
to support the team.
I will speak today about community: a local community
emblematic of the diversity and cohesion that makes London so great, and a
national community that is galvanised by the same ideals as our pocket of
south-east London. Dulwich Hamlet FC are not unique in their current struggle.
Their cause has received support from around the world, both from the football
community and, significantly, from many who are not archetypal fans of the game
but recognise the immense community value that the club brings.
Catherine West
(Hornsey and Wood Green) (Lab)
I congratulate my hon. Friend on the wonderful idea of
promoting young people’s access to sport. When we have so much knife and gun
crime, it is important that sport can provide a meaningful outlet for young
people, and for older people, too.
Helen Hayes
My hon. Friend makes a powerful point about the role that
football can play. I shall address some of those issues a little later in my
speech.
There are stories similar to Dulwich Hamlet’s from the
football community throughout the country: from Skelmersdale to, Merthyr,
Torquay, Hereford and Coventry. Communities are fragile and the spaces and
institutions that bring people from a diverse range of backgrounds together can
be rare. Local football clubs provide this focus and an opportunity for
friendships to be developed and bonds strengthened through the sharing of the
passion that football inspires.
Ellie Reeves
(Lewisham West and Penge) (Lab)
I thank my hon. Friend for securing this debate. Many of my
constituents have contacted me about Dulwich Hamlet and they have all spoken
about their love and affinity for the club. As my hon. Friend says, football
clubs are often the lynchpin of communities, but they are increasingly
threatened by buy-outs, as we have seen in Dulwich. Does she agree that the
Government should look into strengthening protections for these community
assets?
Helen Hayes
I do indeed agree that more can be done to protect these
powerful institutions. When such institutions are lost they may be gone
forever, so we must do all that we can to keep them alive. The Government may
argue that they cannot intervene in the commercial or legal affairs of any
individual club, but the situation at Dulwich is not individual; it is
representative of a much wider problem, in which short-term financial gain
seeks to assert itself over an institution valued not just in pounds and pence,
but in people, friendship, aspiration and history.
Stephen Pound (Ealing
North) (Lab)
I am really pleased that my hon. Friend has brought this
issue to the House. The Hamlet has a lot of affection and a lot of people
respect it, but this issue is bigger and wider than that one club. If we do not
have grassroots football—if we do not have the small teams such as, in my part
of the world, Hayes & Yeading, where players like Les Ferdinand and Paul
Merson started—how are we going to channel talent into the higher leagues?
Without teams like the Hamlet, we will not have top-tier football. The Minister
is a great sportswoman and she supports a team in north London, the name of
which escapes me. Does my hon. Friend agree that without teams like the Hamlet,
we would not have teams like Spurs?
Helen Hayes
I agree wholeheartedly with my hon. Friend’s remarks.This year, Dulwich Hamlet celebrated its 125th anniversary.
The historic first formal meeting of Hamlet Old Boys and founder Pa Wilson took
place on Friday 28 January 1893 at the Dulwich Hamlet Elementary School in
Dulwich Village. The team eventually settled at Champion Hill in 1902—the same
year in which both Manchester United and Real Madrid were founded—and it has
been there ever since.
Dulwich Hamlet has a long history and a strong and proud
heritage: they are four-time FA Amateur cup winners; two Hamlet players, Edgar
Kail and Bert Coleman, earned full England caps; and in 1948 Champion Hill was
used for the London Olympics, hosting football just as the neighbouring Herne
Hill velodrome hosted cycling.
It has not all been plain sailing over the years. The club
faced closure in the 1960s, and in the 1980s it gave up its old ground to
ensure that there was a future and a new stadium. But Dulwich Hamlet is far
more than just a football club. It is part of the very fabric of the local
community through its inclusive and accessible approach to football, its social
activity supporting good causes, and the many initiatives that are led by the
club and its army of volunteers—from Dulwich to Dunkirk and to Syria.
One fan told of his days as a beat bobby in south-east
London and how Dulwich Hamlet and its loyal supporters—the Rabble—came together
to engage the local youngsters, providing school competitions, role models, and
an alternative to getting into trouble: just one of countless initiatives the
club has led in the community. Under current manager, Gavin Rose, who is in the
Public Gallery today, the Aspire Academy has been developed and works with
hundreds more young people every year. Thirty-five players from the academy
have moved into the professional game. Aspire is not just about success on the
field—although it is certainly that—and it is not just about developing better
players; it is also about instilling in our young people the importance of
becoming better members of their community.
I am proud of the many young people from Aspire who have not
gone on to make a career in football, but who have become outstanding citizens.
The academy’s work is not limited to young people. In recent years, it has seen
the club host a ground-breaking match against the Stonewall 11 in support of
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights; arranged food bank collections;
and sent aid to refugees in Calais. I have with me today a special edition
scarf to celebrate 100 years of women’s suffrage. The list of its work goes on.
Dulwich Hamlet has a strong community identity. It is a
family club that has brought pleasure—and admittedly some pain—to generations
of supporters. It is very often the first club that children attend because it
is local, family friendly and has a great community feel.
Dulwich Hamlet FC fans mainly live nearby and are part of
our wider local community. They are rightly proud of the way that they have
grown to become a central part of that community, and they are recognised for
what they are doing. The efforts made by the club and all its volunteers to
ensure that the club connects with all parts of its local community were
recognised in 2016, when it was awarded the football foundation community club
of the year at the National Game Awards in London. Everyone wants to keep the
club that way and, given the chance, I know that it can do even more.
Dulwich Hamlet has business sponsors and partners who back
the club financially, put up posters and display its scarves because of the
positive image the team has in the local community and the benefit that the
supporters bring to their businesses. The club is heading in the right
direction. As recently as 2008-09, the club saw average attendances of just
180. That has now risen to more than 1,500 this season, proving the
sustainability of the club and the impact that it has on the community.
Dulwich Hamlet has much to celebrate, currently sitting
third in the league and chasing a promotion to the Conference South, but off
the pitch the picture is entirely different. The club was acquired by Meadow
Partners with operating partner Hadley in 2014. The company took day-to-day
control of the club and paid off a significant number of debts, which had come
very close to driving the club into bankruptcy. It made no secret of the fact
that it was looking to redevelop some or all of the current ground, with the
club being moved to more appropriate facilities nearby. It publicly stated that
giving the club a long-term future was an integral part of its plans.
In March 2016, an application to redevelop the ground was
submitted to Southwark Council. The plans included provision for 155 new
dwellings, as well as a new stadium for the club to be built on metropolitan
open land, which would be handed over to Dulwich Hamlet FC for fan ownership.
However, there was no planning policy designation for residential use on that
site, and of course there was the very strong planning protection of
metropolitan open land, which meant that, essentially, there was no clear
policy framework against which the council could determine the application.
In December 2017, a planning appeal was lodged by Meadow on
the grounds that Southwark Council had failed to reach a decision within the
required timescale. Subsequent legal wrangling between the developer and the
council over the football club’s lease resulted in costs, thought to be around
£320,000, being awarded against the club, which had played no role in the legal
case, and ultimately to the developer withdrawing the planning appeal.
Following the withdrawal of the planning appeal, the
developer announced that it had withdrawn all financial support and management
of the football club as, in its opinion, there was no chance of its being able
to build on the part of the site that was the subject of the dispute concerning
the lease. In December 2017, Meadow demanded that the football club sign a new
lease to continue playing at Champion Hill or face being evicted.
Recently, things have accelerated further. Dulwich Hamlet
has been locked out of its ground—including access to club merchandise,
historic memorabilia and the war memorial. In a bizarre turn of events, Dulwich
Hamlet FC has even had its own name, nickname and initials registered as a
trade mark and was told not to use them. Although I understand that there may
have been some progress on this in the past few days, it is nevertheless the
case that, last week, Dulwich Hamlet found itself without a home and without a
name, putting at risk its historic ground and the basis for all the wonderful
work that it does.
None of this is necessary. There are a number of alternative
options on the table from potential investors who are interested in doing the
right thing: safeguarding the club and building much needed social housing.
Southwark Council has made a strong commitment to the club, including taking a
formal decision this week that it would make capital funding available to
acquire the site. But not every club benefits from such a strong and vocal support
base, and a strong and committed council.
The situation developing at Champion Hill is unfortunately
far from an isolated situation. Across the country, we are seeing clubs whose
communities face losing access to vital sports grounds or that have been adversely
affected by stadium land deals. After all, many football clubs—particularly in
London and not only at non-league level—have found themselves homeless, and in
some cases merged or out of business, after falling victim to the ambitions of
property developers.
Bob Stewart
(Beckenham) (Con)
I know that time is of the essence, but what exactly would
the hon. Lady like the Government to do to help the club?
Helen Hayes
If the hon. Gentleman bears with me for just a couple of
minutes, I will come to exactly those points.
There is a significant housing crisis in London. At least
50,000 new homes a year are needed just to keep up with demand, and the
unavoidable fact is that football clubs commonly sit on large, expensive sites
and are often considered less valuable than the ground beneath them. This is
not an argument against building new homes, which are essential, but as new
homes are being built we must also take care of the fabric of communities—the
institutions and the places that knit people together. It is this value that is
never captured on the developer’s balance sheet.
In London the list of clubs that are under pressure is
depressingly long. In recent years Enfield Town, Edgware Town, Hendon and
Thurrock football clubs have all lost their historical homes. Away from London
and the south-east, where the pressure on housing and the value of land is not
always so acute, the story continues. Northampton Town, Kettering Town, Torquay
United, Skelmersdale United, Coventry City and Merthyr Town—to name just a
few—are all facing battles to survive as the property developers circle. As
with Dulwich Hamlet, these teams are very much a part of their communities.
As a symbol of the solidarity and community that exist
across the world of local football, Dulwich Hamlet will play out its remaining
games this season at arch rival Tooting and Mitcham United’s ground. The club
has had messages of support from countless teams across the country. More can
be done to stop the situation at Dulwich Hamlet happening to other clubs, and I
will end by making a number of asks of the Minister.
First, will the Minister commit to an urgent audit of the
premises of league and non-league football grounds and stadiums across the
country, and quantify the extent and nature of the threat that is exemplified
by the situation at Dulwich Hamlet? Secondly, will she use that information to
make the case to her colleagues at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and
Local Government for greater protection to be afforded to league and non-league
football grounds, perhaps using the protections introduced by Labour to
safeguard school playing fields as a model?
Thirdly, will the Minister review how it could possibly come
to pass that a developer was able to register the trademark of a 125-year-old
football club, seemingly without regard to the live and continuous use of the
club’s name? How could this decision possibly have been approved by the
Intellectual Property Office? Will she take steps to ensure that no other
football clubs can be threatened with the loss of their identity in this way?
Fourthly, will she look at the redistribution of funding within the football
world from the premier league to grassroots football, without which the premier
league will be starved of the talent it needs to be sustained?
Stephen Pound
I did not want to interrupt my hon. Friend because she has
made an incredibly powerful case, and I know that the Minister will be very
keen to respond, but I hope that she will pay credit to the Football
Foundation, which is doing a great deal of work in redistributing money. I
appreciate that one of the problems with British football is that there is a
lot of money at the top and not a lot at the feeder clubs, but the Football
Foundation—in my opinion and, I think, in that of many of our colleagues—is
doing a really good job for grassroots football.
Helen Hayes
My hon. Friend makes a very important point.
Finally, will the Minister progress reforms to ensure that
the fit and proper persons test must apply to non-league ownership and that
some form of bond be attached to any acquisition, and explore how fans can play
a greater protective role in the ownership and governance of league and
non-league football clubs?
For Dulwich Hamlet the immediate solution is simply for the
club to be given its home back. The current breakdown of trust and relationship
between Meadow, the council and the club is of grave concern. It would be
better for everyone, including Meadow, for the land to be sold at fair market
value on terms that guarantee a sustainable future for the club. I hope that
the Minister will also join me in calling on Meadow to re-engage with the
council and the club, and to negotiate a way forward that places a secure future
for Dulwich Hamlet football club at its historical home, Champion Hill, as the
highest priority. Forward the Hamlet!
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