Town's shareholders showed themselves to be very firmly split on the current issues of the day at the club's AGM held in the Portman Road gym on Wednesday evening. Those speaking in favour of the controversial directors' bonuses were applauded just as warmly as those making points against.

The evening started with the chairman's speech, which is likely to be posted on the official website over the next day or so, if previous years are anything to go by.

David Sheepshanks was joined on the top table by all the directors with the exception of Holly Bellingham and new appointment Peter Cohen, who had an engagement arranged prior to his joining the Town board. Largest shareholder Michael Spencer was also amongst those sending their apologies.

After Sheepshanks's speech, which received a round of applause, although one by no means unanimously observed, questions were taken from the near 500 shareholders present out of the current total of 3,792.

Sheepshanks having made reference to the club's community ownership as opposed to the future possibility of a ‘Mr Big' taking control, one shareholder asked how an individual could be nominated to the board.

The chairman said there was nothing to prevent anyone's name being put forward and given due consideration. Later, another shareholder said he had written to the chairman putting his name forward a year previously but had not received a reply.

Sheepshanks apologised if this was the case and said that his office and that of chief executive Derek Bowden endeavour to reply to all correspondence. He added that the criteria for being considered as a potential board member include skills and contacts within a particular field, while finance might also seen as a factor.

The summer share issue's total was requested and was revealed as £660,000 all of which, said the chairman, would go to the player budget.

Shareholders were greeted by tractors moving new turf onto the pitch as they arrived and the reasons why the club has had problems with the surface were raised. Derek Bowden explained that a 20mm pitch was laid in the summer but failed to root after being affected by the long period of hot weather.

Contamination by salt water followed and despite the attempts of Alan Ferguson and his staff to rectify the situation, the club came to the conclusion that there was no alternative but to relay a new 40mm pitch, something which will happen over the next two to three days.

Bowden said that the club would not be able to make an insurance claim regarding the pitch problem as there was no third party involved, just adverse conditions.

A further question asked whether the club had considered lighting gantries aimed at the pitch as a number of Premiership sides have recently. Bowden said that this had been looked into and that they cost €70,000 each and £4,000 a year to run. Renting some for the Britannia Stand side of the pitch has been considered and may well be something which happens later on in the season.

The new turf which comes from Holland is reinforced at the root, unlike Town's previous pitches.

Another shareholder asked about Football Aid and why Town weren't involved in the charity event in which fans paid to play on their club's pitch. Sales and marketing manager Andrew Goulborn explained that the club is not keen to play too many games on the main pitch, particularly towards the end of the season when the Suffolk FA finals are also staged.

The rise on the shareholding limit from 15% to 40% was requested by one shareholder. David Sheepshanks said that this matter would be referred back to shareholders should the need arise, having previously stated that no large potential investor of this type is currently known to the board.

The chairman was asked if there were any plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Town's promotion from the Third Division (South) under Sir Alf Ramsey this season. Sheepshanks confessed that this was not something which had as yet received any attention but that thought would be given to what might be appropriate.

Town's Save Your Energy for the Blues campaign received criticism due to the limitations of local bus services available on Sundays and in midweek. Andrew Goulborn said the club was working with the Supporters Club regarding transport to and from matches.

Sheepshanks said that Town and other clubs were becoming increasingly frustrated at the cash they receive for Sky games. Championship clubs receive £60,000 for home matches covered live by Sky, a figure which Sheepshanks says does not compensate the cash lost due to the drop in gates caused by unpalatable kick-off times.

The vexed issue of the directors' bonuses was finally broached with details of the targets requested. John Kerr, the chairman of the remuneration committee, said the awards were based on financial performance. Derek Bowden and Anna Hughes's bonuses were discretionary up to a percentage of salary based on criteria the remuneration committee felt appropriate.

The chairman's bonus was discretionary based on the improved financial state of the club.

Kerr said that the non-executive directors, who make up the remuneration committee, go to a lot of trouble to set the criteria on which bonuses are paid. They were benchmarked against 14 other similarly-sized “yo-yo clubs” like Town, four in the Premiership, nine in the Championship and one in League One.

The former chairman felt the current incumbent well worth his salary and bonus, working as he does far more than his two-and-a-half days a week, effectively a full week.

None of the four directors received the maximum possible bonus which would have been paid had the remuneration committee considered their performance “outstanding”.

Kerr added that the remuneration committee felt that a vote on the issue had not been considered as necessary. Kevin Beeston said that the remuneration committee tried to comply with listing rules despite the company not actually being listed on the Stock Exchange.

Beeston attacked the recent press coverage of the bonuses, describing it as “ridiculous” and adding that “we are lucky to have these guys”.

Supporters Trust committee member Alasdair Ross said he felt that the club's “tarnished” chairman should have turned down his £25,000 bonus to applause from the floor. John Kerr, speaking for the remuneration committee, felt this was not a reasonable suggestion, the chairman having poured his life into the club, to a not dissimilar ovation.

Another shareholder attacked Derek Bowden's wage and bonus asking him what he did to earn such a sum (£153,000 plus £46,000) and criticising the decision to give up to 15% of the club to Norwich Union.

Sheepshanks, who had stepped back from answering questions relating to his own bonus, strongly defended Bowden's role, saying that working as a football club chief executive was an onerous position, describing it as an “eight days a week” job.

A clearly wound-up chairman added that the club was recruiting the best possible people they could afford and that the calibre of staff is higher than ever, stressing the importance of good corporate governance.

Someone else called on his fellow shareholders not to be negative and to back the club, before Supporters Trust committee member Colin Kreidewolf expressed his dismay at comments by the chairman and Kevin Beeston which implied that those who were critical of the board were in some way less Town supporters than those who weren't, something denied by David Sheepshanks.

Kreidewolf, who paid for an academy side to play in a tournament in Ireland earlier this year from his own pocket, criticised the award of the bonus to the chairman in the same year as the Michael Anderson controversy, and announced his intention not to make similar donations in the future.

Trust chairman Carl Day described the chairman's bonus as “morally wrong”, coming as it did in the final year of the CVA after the club's administration which saw unsecured creditors receive only 5p in the pound of what was owed to them. Should the £25,000, he argued, not be put back into the club?

Sheepshanks refused to respond, before Kevin Beeston cut in and said it was an unfair question and not one for the chairman to answer. He added that no one had wanted administration and the problems which have followed, and that the bonus was entirely deserved. He revealed that Sheepshanks is the 20th highest paid person at the club.

Day again asked Sheepshanks whether his bonus was morally correct, but Beeston again answered, saying, “We don't agree with you”.

The next question was taken from a shareholder who had not renewed his season ticket in the summer. He said that despite numerous entreaties to sign up again, he had never been asked why he had allowed his ticket to lapse in the first place.

Sheepshanks said that the club had undertaken a phone campaign to discover this from fans and apologised if he hadn't been one of those who had received a call.

A request to know how much money Jim Magilton has in his transfer kitty met with laughs and the chairman describing it as a “significant” figure but going no further in order not to alert other clubs to Town's position when negotiating future deals.

Jim himself said he had “a few quid to spend” and had been delighted with the work of scouts Steve McCall and Charlie Woods since he had appointed them and who he had travelled long distances in recent months.

Magilton felt his new players had done well up to now and that he could smell the hunger to succeed on the likes of loanees Simon Walton and Mark Noble, who showed commitment and attitude during their time at the club.

He reserved special praise for Sylvain Legwinski, who he described as a top player with a superb attitude providing a great example to the younger players by being first in the weights room every day. There was now a queue outside the weights room, which was previously unheard of.

Magilton pointed to a Town crest projected on a wall and said: “The badge is starting to mean something again.”

The former skipper said he was delighted with his changes so far and implied that there is a ‘shape up or ship out' policy towards senior pros too set in their ways, adding that the club's fitness coach had told him of one or two of those seasoned professionals had recently requested extra training.

Magilton added that this had been his dream job all his life and that he won't waste the opportunity or take it lightly and received the most rousing round of applause of the evening.

Sheepshanks then briefly took the mike again and made perhaps the most significant comment of the evening, suggesting that the club would seek to extend the interest holiday arrangement with Norwich Union beyond the two-to three years already negotiated.

This would be unlikely to see the bondholder and the club's most significant lender take their stake beyond the 15% already agreed. Norwich Union are not keen to own any more of the club and any further shareholding would require the permission of shareholders.

All eight resolutions were passed by large margins before the meeting, one of the more contentious AGMs in recent years, was closed.

Photo: Action Images

Ipswich Town Polls