Press Report 8th December 2025

Tradition lost

Ilford AC was formed in 1923 with its headquarters, still in the same location, on the edge of Hainault Forest.
The club quickly forged a good working relationship with Essex County council, and more recently The Woodland Trust, and for the past 102 years have hosted 2-3 races a year in the Forest, with the full blessing and encouragement of the Forests management.

The longest running event in the clubs history is the Ilford AC Cross Country Champs, traditionally held between Christmas day and the New Year, which this year was to be its 75th anniversary.
It was also to be the 10 year anniversary of when the club gave the working title of the event ‘Race for Kev’ after one of our well loved runners ‘Kevin Newell’ had a serious accident at work, which means he has to spend the rest of his life having 24 hours a day care at Havering Court Care Home. After discussions with his family, the club agreed that a significant part of the profit made from the event would be donated to a local charity ‘St Francis Hospice’, which has been the case for the last 10 years.

Last year the Woodland Trust came under new management, and after a few initial teething problems the club successfully hosted their annual Essex League match in November with over 600 runners over all age groups competing.

With plans in place to celebrate the 2 big anniversaries of the Cross Country Champs the club requested permission from the Woodland Trust, which for 102 years has been a formality, to host the event.
It was a huge shock when we received a curt reply saying that permission was not granted as ‘The Forest needed time to heal after the November event’ The club have never in our history been refused permission to race in the forest and the day following each race we have a team walk the course to make sure all markers have been removed and you would never know that there had been an event the day previous.

After our initial protest we were told that as well as the forest needing time to heal, the overflow carpark in the Country Park would not be available in the winter and none of their staff would be on duty due to Christmas holidays – When the overflow carpark has never been open in December without affecting our race, and we have never needed anyone from the Woodland Trust to be on duty for any of our races ever.
In fact as well as the club losing out on one of only 2 races we make an income from during the year, and St Francis Hospice losing out on a significant donation, we have also had to cancel our donation to St John Ambulance who attend each of our events.

A very sad day in the clubs history.