The following letter was issues to the new Secretary of State for Media, Sports and Culture James Purnell at the DCMS, and also that copies were sent to Gordon Brown, Stewart Hosie MP, Paddy Tipping MP, Minister of State Margaret Hodge and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Gerry Sutcliffe.

 

12th July, 2007.

Dear Sir,

I am writing in reference to my earlier correspondence with both Gordon Brown and Richard Cabron during the early months of 2007, and again wanted to thank the DCMS for their support so far, and to formally introduce myself as the chair of the British Ice Hockey Fans Association (BIHFA). We are a newly formed organisation who’s aim is to represent our members and work with the various leagues, clubs and associations for the betterment of the game in the United Kingdom.

We submitted a presentation to yourselves and UK Sport which included some suggestions to progress the sport, and which we hope will form part of the ongoing investigation into the internal governance and structure of Ice Hockey in this country. I am confident that Richard Caborn will have forwarded this onto you , however, should this not be the case, I would be delighted to submit this again for your attention if required.

As a new organisation in this country, we are in the midst of building relationships with the various bodies as we seek to represent our members moving forward, and I wondered if there was any updates we can share at the moment in relation to the UK Sport led review? It was our belief that follow up meetings were scheduled to take place with ministers and Ice Hockey officials in either June or July and this is something that we at BIHFA wholeheartily support.

I would be very grateful for any information you can share today, and please feel free to contact me should you require any further input from BIHFA.

I look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Yours sincerely,

David Cunningham
Chairperson
British Ice Hockey Fans Association