Yes Or No To Closure Of Prince’s Marquee In Dorchester?

Dorchester Town Football Club was formed in 1880 and has played an important role in the local community by providing opportunities for fans to watch non league football in a non threatening environment.

It further supports the vitality and economic viability of the town through the contracts it places with local businesses and the various purchases of visiting fans.

Over the last year, the marquee has provided supporters and others with a community asset which has benefited the club with additional income. This has helped to sustain the club through an increasingly difficult economic climate and its retention would continue to provide supporters and the wider community with a valued community facility as well as support the financial viability of the football club itself.

The marquee is essential for the clubs survival and losing it could prove to be disastrous.

If the town council are interested in long term stability of this town and its businesses then they need to look at the biger picture and realis that this facility is needed to help sustain the business at DTFC. It provides a well used public venue which is well placed and reasonably priced. (There is clearly a conflict of interest with their own venues here!) It shuld be allowed to stay, fuun yt that all of a sudden a few residents have been rounded up by cetain councillors to complain. I don not remember any complaints previously?
The town needs this facility, and it needs to sustain its football club, however there are no hand outs so it is up to the club to maitain its own site and infrastructure at its own expense, whereas the council are able to gain funding to renovate and improve.
The site cannot really be seen, so not an eyesore, the sound does not carry as it is stated, and it cannot cause a parking or traffic problem due to the car park and location.
If it is purely because the Town Council believe that they can improve there finances from bookings at the venues they run, then surely free market competition is quite legal?

This marquee doesnt affect anyone does it ? dorchester council has too much more to worry about this is a great asset to dorchester providing an affordable decent venue for a variety of events! surely dorchester council would be better off looking for more shops to establish in dorchester and bring in more revenue to the town dorchester in turning year by year into a town for old people with so many coffee shops and charity shops. Primark evans wilkinsons to name but a few oh and a kfc would be nice too .

Cllr Rennie's comments "They should be looking for a permanent structure. The applicant has had a whole year to put the planning application together.” shows quite how out of touch she is with the town and the football club.

Anyone worth their salt (or worth 35p to buy the Echo) will know that the club has recently changed ownership, inherited a substantial debt from the previous regime and this month have been facing a winding up order from HM Revenue. Quite how Cllr Rennie believes the club would be able to afford a permanent structure is anyone's guess.

If this marquee were to be rejected, it would be a travesty for the club in my opinion. Not only is it vital to the financing of the club (even more so given the recent HMRC winding up petition, but it is also a huge asset to the community in terms of offering a decent medium sized venue in town. The only alternative being the Corn Exchance - owned by the town council. (Not that I'm suggesting a conflict of interest)