Southend: Youth and boxing club ‘gobsmacked’ as grant reinstated

John Plummer, treasurer of both clubs, said “it should never have come to this”.

“Thankfully, someone’s seen sense somewhere along the line and we’re now on our way to start all over again,” he added.

Bayo Alaba, the Labour MP for Southend East and Rochford, had written directly to the culture secretary Lisa Nandy about the club’s fate.

He told the BBC he understood that the clubs had been “frustrated, rightly so”, but that he was “over the moon” that the funding had been reinstated.

“It’s an institution and [people] don’t want to see a cut – they want to see investment,” he said.

“We’ve got our heritage back and we can plan for the future for our young people.”