The Annual General Meeting of Hereford United took place earlier this evening at the VP Club.
The clubs new chairman David Keyte took the meeting. Also on top table were vice-chairman Tim Russon, director Grenville Smith and Kevin Tong from accountants Thorne Widgery.
Held in the less formal surroundings of the VP club, the meeting attracted over 30 shareholders, nearly double the attendance of previous years.
The chairman explained why the club had lost £53,660 in the year and four days to June 4th 2010, the date Graham Turner and Joan Fennessey severed their ties with the club.
Compared with the previous season when the Bulls were in League One, gates and season tickets sales were down. Nevertheless a potential profit of around £50,000 would have been achieved had the then directors remuneration remained at the same level. However Turner and Fennessey each took an ex-gratia payment and increased their pension contributions which together added £100,000 to their remuneration.
"It wasn't a lot in the grand scale of things," noted the chairman. "Especially considering how long they had been at the club."
The meeting discussed the post balance sheet event which revealed that the club had paid £452,000 to the Richardsons for the £1M debt and the return of the leases. The chairman was pleased with the agreement which meant that the club could have much more control over its future. Today the club has a reasonable balance in the bank even after paying off this debt.
The chairman said that they were in discussions with the Herefordshire Council, the landlord of Edgar Street, about a new long lease. An agreement was thought to be close.
This new lease could be 125 years or even as long as 250 years for all the exsisting ground plus some extra land at the back of the Meadow End.
As regards the Blackfriars End, the chairman said the club were hoping to put new plans to the Council by the end of the year. These plans were likely to include the area of the burnt-out sportsmans club.
He disclosed that they would like to apply for a grant from the Football Stadium Trust but this might have to be done sooner as opposed to later as it was uncertain what funding would be available from 2013. Currently a 50% grant is on offer.
A question was asked about police charges. The chairman had met with local senior police officers and a compromise had been reached about the charges for policing around Edgar Street.
The basis of the deal is that the club will pay for six officers working in pairs on days when the away support was expected to be much larger than usual. Shrewsbury and Oxford were two such examples. The cost would be £1500.
The police have dropped their request for a £20K payment relating to a Friday evening fixture two seasons ago which Graham Turner refused to pay.
Another question was about the club only having three directors. The chairman said that when he and Russon took over they wanted time to take a good look at everything. They were not against new directors and should any supporter be interested he/she could be proposed.
Asked how they felt after nearly nine months in charge, the chairman replied that they were happy with their acquisation.
Text at top (next game etc)
Next Game: Rushall At Home In The League On Saturday 30th November At 3.00pm