VOLUNTEER bosses at Minehead Football Club have been given a fighting chance of turning the organisation into a viable business but warned there will be no public cash to help balance their books. Five days after being granted a premises licence for the Irnham Road ground buildings, the town council - which owns the site - added its much needed support by giving the club a one-year lease. The vital agreement had been in the balance after the authority made a surprise decision just ten days before the premises licence hearing to impose a temporary alcohol ban on the club - a move which resulted in the loss of £1,500 and a number of function bookings. At the extraordinary meeting on Wednesday night, effectively to decide the club's future, newly elected Minehead Mayor Cllr Ann Foxhuntley suggested that initially the lease should be no than one or two months while the club considered how, or even if, it could meet the raft of tough conditions imposed as part of the premises licence. Cllr Foxhuntley said the most challenging of these was the requirement to install a CCTV system within six months and a noise limiting device, both of which would require capital payment. She suggested the club might want to "leave" the buildings at the end of June after honouring a number of wedding reception bookings and that the possibility of relinquishing the function suite and occupying only the clubhouse could be considered. Cllr Martyn Snell also favoured a short tenure, saying a two-month agreement would give all sides the opportunity to study the licence conditions, a copy of which had yet to be received by the club or the town council. But the club's acting secretary John Burns told the meeting his committee wanted a one-year lease - a move eventually backed by a majority of councillors after Cllr John Malin reminded them that was what had been agreed in January. Mr Burns pledged that with the new agreement would come a new regime. He accepted there had been some "hiccoughs" in the past but insisted there were now better lines of communication between the club, the council and the neighbours of the Irnham Road ground - many of whom lodged formal objections in a bid to block the granting of the premises licence. He admitted the club could take a fair degree of blame for the past problems but said it now wanted to establish a regular income that was acceptable to the council and local residents. "We want the opportunity to make this a successful venture. At the end of the day we - the club, the council and the neighbours - all have the interest of the area at heart and we believe there are ways in which we can move forward." Mr Burns said management and business plans were being drawn up and the club would be hoping to secure more daytime bookings for events such as training sessions or seminars. "We are not in the business of running a pub or licensed premises - we are in the business of raising income to support football." However, Mr Burns said the council's decision to impose the temporary alcohol ban and the subsequent publicity the decision attracted had had serious implications for the club's financial future. "There has been a general loss of confidence in the town and we are just hoping this can be remedied." Cllr Stan Taylor, who had met with club officials earlier in the day to help map out future options, said he hoped that at the end of the new agreement the council would be ready to consider granting the club a 21-year lease. He said it was essential for the club to have the security of the one-year lease immediately to restore confidence within the town. "I have been quite open with the club about the council's fears but I do believe this is a new start," said Cllr Taylor. "I don't see why it could not be in a reasonably viable position within a year." Cllr Simon Stokes said the council's support for the club had never been in doubt. But it had to be made clear that the decision this year effectively to grant aid the £15,000 annual rent on the Irnham Road buildings to the tune of £10,000 was as far, financially, as the council could go. "We are not sitting on a big pile of money - if we give it to the club, we have to take it from somewhere else. "Meeting the terms of the premises licence is down to the club. We have to formally tell them there will be no more public money." But Mr Burns told councillors the club fully accepted that any capital outlay for systems such as CCTV and noise limiting was its responsibility. And he said it was misleading to suggest that the club had benefited from large amounts of public money in the past. The £30,000 - equal payments from the council and former lessee Barry Richards - made available when the club took over the premises had been invested in the buildings. And although the club had enjoyed two years' rent free and would now be paying just a third of this year's rent bill, an enormous amount of work had been carried out by volunteer labour. "We have redecorated outside and inside, we have brought your buildings up to a reasonable standard," said Mr Burns. "So let's get away from the feeling that we have had something for nothing - we have not."