I thank you for your letter of the 14th instant.

Will you let me know the date on which the ground was last used by your Club, or any of its sub-tenants after the 1st October 1939.

In reply to your letter of the 16th instant received this morning, the ground was not used by the Club at all after the War. As was mentioned in the letter of the 5th instant, Mr.Wilson’s cattle were out on the ground until the end of October but that was the last time when any use was made whatever by any sub-tenant.

CRWC.4/86832/6. LB.

Dear Sirs,

D.Y.Pitts Esq.,

Messrs. Edmund Kirby & Son,

5,Cook Street,

Liverpool.2.

Dear Sir,

After seeing you on Friday I met Wilkinson, of Sefton Committee who had been in touch with Hulme and also with an official who is concerned with conveyancing. They had gone into the matter of the claim and the man who knew the job had said that in his opinion the claim figure, with same margin for negotiation, should have been £150 and not £100.

That brought me down again on Sat.A.M. and as you, were not in I got in touch with Mr.Pitts and later saw him. Went over his letter pointing out that so far from our not being able to anticipate any alternate tenancy we had had, a very urgent request from Mr.Gibbs, Headmaster of the Oulton School, to let the ground to the school for the duration, as school had lost their other ground and had no ground in sight. I had to tell him at once that the ground had been taken over and that we could not therefore let him have it. Under those circumstances no terms were mentioned, but Mr.Gibbs did say that they would be prepared to pay proportionately for it, but that of course any figure would have e had to have been agreed to by the L.E.A.

We got, as you know, £30 p.a. for use of one or two pitches on Wednesdays only. A very different matter to use of all pitches weekdays and Sats all the year round, and. I can think of no method of proportion which would have arrived at as low a figure as £75. Mr.Pitts, however, seems to think that the fact that no actual figure was discussed may be a fatal obstacle to acceptance of this factor. I can't accept this view.

Mr.Pitts went further into the question of the banking, and it appears that he was thinking of the grounds for allotments and the decreased area.

We now know that as a building site banking which could be used to fill the ditch which runs round ground may be an asset instead of a liability, and it certainly seems to be an asset from a military point of view. Apparently we have to count all the minus points and none of the plus ones. Sounds too much like Munich for me.

Hope you can make something out of this but have been on detailed plans for several hours and they are still running round in my head.

Dear Sirs,

I thank you for your letter of the 2nd instant enclosing letter from Mr Croxford. I was glad to learn from him on Saturday that the Oulton School wanted this ground but I had to point out to him (a) that no rent having been actually fixed we were not much better off towards supporting our claim of £100 and (b) that the school was not in the market in October or November last year because it was evacuated. I also explained (and I thought to Mr Croxford’s satisfaction) that while the banking might come in useful when the site was developed for building it was not so much of an asset from the point of view of allotment annual tenant for allotment purposes.

All this may have seemed to Mr Croxford like pointing out the minus items and ignoring the plus ones. Please reassure him that this is only my way of making certain that I know all the answers when the time comes for me to put forward the plus ones to the other side.

Dear Sirs,

We received a call yesterday at long last from Mr Carder of the Western Command with whom we discussed very fully the question of rent. He was, of course, under the impression that the figure of £75 represented a fair settlement between the figure claimed and the amount which he thought represented its full value. After some trouble we got him to increase his offer to £85 beyond which he said he would not go.

As you know we do not advise holding out for the full amount claimed and think £85 a not unreasonable figure especially as it would appear to cover all necessary outgoings. We are aware, however, that your clients do not altogether agree with our ideas and we left Mr Carder in no doubt on this point. We told him that we would report his offer but had no instructions to accept anything lower than the amount claimed. If you agree with our recommendations perhaps you will obtain these instructions for us.

I am such obliged for your letter of the 30th ultimo and enclose copy of a letter which I have accordingly written to Mr Carder.

With regard to the question of rates there is no doubt that under the terms of the Act the rates are payable the Requisitioning Authority and not by the owners. Where the Requisitioning Authority are in fact the Crown they will probably not be rateable for their occupation at all, but may agree to contribute a corresponding sum of’ money to the Rating Authority in lieu of rates. The Rating Authority, however, have no power to demand rates in respect of occupation by the Crown.

Dear Sir,

CRWC 4/86832/6 L.B.

WHC/EJP.

Dear Sirs,

I thank you for your letter of the 2nd October and regret to note that your clients are unable to accept my offer of £85 -0 - 0 per annum.

They do not seem to appreciate that there are two sides to every argument, and that we have requisitioned and settled the claims in respect of many similar areas of land, purely on an agricultural basis. The agricultural value of the land in question is probably not more that £1 per acre allowing for an annual rental value of the Pavilion, at say £15 - 0 - 0 per annum it might be claimed that £25 - 0 - 0 per annum would be a fair rental. I think it would be possible to substantiate such a valuation. In view of other settlements which we have made, you will appreciate, therefore, that I have fully taken into account any particular value this site may have as a Playing Field in my offer of £85 - 0 - 0 per annum.

With regard to the date of possession, I have a letter from Messrs H.J. Davies, Berthen & Munro dated 18th June, in which they state that Mr Wilson’s cattle were on the ground until the end of October, and I have agreed that the rent should run from the 1st November 1939, i.e. the date suggested by Messrs H.J. Davies Berthen & Munro.

I shall be glad to hear that your clients will reconsider their decision, in which case I will arrange for a draft to be sent to you forthwith for the amount outstanding.

I have had a letter from Mr.Pitts enclosing a letter from the Command Land Agent, copy of which I am sending to you, together with copy of Mr.Pitts letter to the Command Land Agent. I have also sent copies to Freddie

It looks as though we are at a dead end and I must say that while it is very hard to predict the result of matters like this, it may be that we should not get more than £85 if we went to arbitration; perhaps we might get even less. However, neither Mr.Pitts nor myself want to settle at too small a figure and perhaps it could be arranged that we all meet Mr.Pitts and have a discussion as to whether we should press the claim to arbitration.

Dear Sir,

We have been in further touch with our clients and have now received a letter from them stating that after consideration they have decided to accept the offer of £85 per annum. This offer will, of course, have to be subject to payment of your proper fees and also of our costs, and we hope that you can arrange something suitable.

We shall have to put our costs at 18 gns, as there has been a good deal of work.

Dear Sir,

CRWC 4/86832/6 LB.

WHC/EJP.

Dear Sirs,

Your letter dated 4th inst. to the Secretary, Comdr. Coopper, has been forwarded to me, and I thank you for letting us know of the arrangements in connection with the requisitioning of the above Club’s Ground by the War Office, which requisitioning as you point out cannot of course be opposed. I note that you say it has been provisionally agreed that the Department shall pay a rent of £85 per annum for the Ground, and I hope that before very much longer such agreement will be given effect to.

Dear Sirs,

We beg to enclose the Form of Agreement duly signed on behalf of H.M.Principal Secretary of State for War with a copy of the letter from the Command Land Agent which accompanied it. The latter gives details of the first payment which should be received in the near future. The calculation of rent appears to be correct though we are unable to follow his estimate of the Income Tax deduction therefrom. Presumably this dates only from the 5th April.

With regard to fees you will note that he has reduced our £5. 5. 0. to £4.13.0. which is intended to be at the rate of £5. 5.0.% (in fact it is only £5.0.0.%). He has made up the difference, however, by including £1. 1. 0. for motor mileage and out—of-pocket expenses. If you have no objection we should like still to render an account to you for £5. 5. 0. which will leave you with an additional 6/- towards expenses.

With reference to your letter of the 12th. December, 1945 I have now been informed that it may be possible for my club to be granted the use of one pitch and changing- room on a Saturday afternoon during the continuance of the requisition of the ground. I am now awaiting official intimation from higher authority as to this.

I shall be obliged, however, if you can inform me officially, and as soon as possible, of my Club’s position in relation to the continuance or otherwise of the requisitioning of the property, in order that I may inform my Committee of the prospect of re-organising the club on its former basis, and so that I can acquaint the trustees of the Club’s assets of their position.

c/o. Simon Jude & West,

11/13 Victoria St.,

Liverpool,2.

Your Ref .LB4/86832/6,

AL/BS.

Dear Sir,

With further reference to your letter of the 23rd.,January,1946, my Committee have decided that in view of the short playing time remaining it would not be of advantage to accept the offer made as far as this season is concerned

They desire, however, to accept the arrangement for the 1946/7 season, commencing on Saturday, 24th., August,1946, but they are anxious to be assured that there will be a reasonable security of tenure and that any rights which the Club possess as landlord will not be prejudiced by any facilities granted to the Club by the War Department.

Perhaps, it will be possible for you to deal with these points when replying and at the same time to inform me of the amount of set—off required against the present compensation.

I shall be obliged if you will inform me if any further information is available as to the cessation of the requisitioning as it is felt that it will not be possible to arrange fixtures satisfactorily for future seasons until such time as the Club is assured of permanent possession of its property.

It would be of great assistance to me if you could reply to me before Thursday, l4th.,March.on which date my Committee next meet.