'We've done nothing wrong': The New Saints hit back at £80k grant claims
A professional football club has hit back at accusations it failed to pay back an £80,000 council grant.
After a private investigation last month, it was revealed The New Saints FC in Oswestry was handed a grant to build new seating to allow them to compete in European competitions.
Information from private investigator Paul Wiseman was passed to Oswestry Town Council after it was alleged the club failed to pay back £16,000 a year for five years.
TNS said at the time they had 'met their outcomes and objectives' and now chief operating officer Ian Williams has insisted the club has done nothing wrong.
He said: "Yes, it is a sad fact of life that there are always people out there who want to knock what we are trying to achieve and it is very frustrating when people criticise us in this way as we have not done anything wrong.
"All it does is to create an unwarranted distraction from the many good things that professional football has brought to the town."
The Saints were successful in applying for money from Shropshire Council's £3.5 million market towns revitalisation programme, with other projects benefitting such as the town museum, and rugby and cricket clubs.
The £80,000 was awarded, and the agreement was that the club could be asked to pay back the money under certain conditions in the form of agreed grants from January 2013, to the Oswestry Joint Economic Board, which would identify projects in the town.
A condition was that the club would be involved in discussions to review funding applications to the board.
Initially the board did not include the football club, which was in the terms of the grant agreement, and went on to approve schemes.
However despite not being involved, the club agreed to reimburse the council on the understanding the club would be involved in a more active role.
But unfortunately that never happened, as Mr Williams explains: "Unfortunately for the people of Oswestry, the OEB never met again and, under the terms of the original agreement with Shropshire Council, this forward thinking programme came to an end last month, five years after it started, so the opportunity for local organisations to apply for funding has been lost.
"From the club’s point of view this is a real pity as we were keen for this programme to work and were looking forward to playing a pro-active role in identifying projects and helping them to be realised for the benefit of the town.
"Looking at the Market Town Revitalisation Programme now it is believed that TNS FC was the only organisation to receive a grant which had to pay the money back to benefit the town."
