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Do we have a supportive City Council?

rightwing

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Whilst the City Council might very well give a grudging qualified approval to our magnificent one and a half tin sheds proposal, I feel that we have reached this situation by stumbling blindly down an ever narrowing one way path. There has been a distinct lack of foresight by the whole redevelopment team in not pursuing options that could have been available to us had those options been followed up at the right time, and no real pressure has been placed on the City Council to help come up with an optimum solution . The Council doesn’t even appear to have a reactive positive response to any redevelopment suggestion let alone a proactive one – indeed it appears to have a complete disinterest in the whole project.

I feel that the vast sums spent by us on consultants’ fees could have been more effectively applied if part had been spent on planning consultants who could have put pressure on the Council to designate an area in the local plan as a mixed use site where enabling development could have been used effectively as a funding source - precisely what has been done by Luton Town.

Luton bought an out of town site for development for £10m last summer. Fans were querying where the money came from but I suspect that an upfront agreement with a developer was the source. The Council designated part of the site for a new football stadium. However in a further twist the football club has now stated that their preferred option is to build a new stadium in the town centre on an old industrial site, but funded by the site that they own.

Gary Sweet, chief executive of the club, said: "The mission of the Luton Town 2020 group was a set of tasks to be completed by that year, one of which was a new stadium.
"We'd be hampering our own ambitions by moving to J10.
"The way we're going to use it allows us to fund a fantastic, ambitious football stadium in the centre of town." The plan is for the 40 acre J10 site to be turned into a mixed use business site, both retail and offices.
Cllr Sian Timoney, portfolio holder for regeneration said: "It's brilliant news and an exciting opportunity for both the club and the town.
"It's something the council will look at when the planning application comes through."

Here are the links:-

http://www.lutontoday.co.uk/sport/luton-town/luton-town-news/hatters-shell-out-10m-for-potential-stadium-site-1-6930854

http://www.luton-dunstable.co.uk/Hatters-relocation-plan-met-support/story-28427329-detail/story.html

It really saddens me to see what we’re likely to end up with compared with what we could have had if the Club had only applied an innovative approach to our project. The City Council should also shoulder some responsibility for not recognizing the needs of the Club relative to the diminishing supply of land in the City at the appropriate time – particularly after being prompted by the conclusions of the Drivers Jonas Report.
 

Antony Moxey

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The glaringly obvious answer is no. Anyone who thinks otherwise is patently a city councillor.
 

Sexton Blake

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The glaringly obvious answer is no. Anyone who thinks otherwise is patently a city councillor.
Ant agree 100%. I have had the dubious pleasure of meeting one of the so called leading lights but much as I would love to write more am acutely aware of the law of libel. However for those Exeter based folk, if not already too late, the answer may still be in their hands come the elections this May.
 

Avening Posse

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Ant agree 100%. I have had the dubious pleasure of meeting one of the so called leading lights but much as I would love to write more am acutely aware of the law of libel. However for those Exeter based folk, if not already too late, the answer may still be in their hands come the elections this May.
Which begs the question will these Councillors who sit on the planning committee make a bold statement by either approving or refusing the application for the flats and the ground if it goes to committee in February, or will they be more conscious of getting back in again and "defer" the sensitive decision until after the election ???
 

AlanDevlin

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Very definitely not! ECC bought the ground some years ago and have it sitting as a rotting millstone around their necks. They have not shown any willingness to interact with ECFC to the best of my knowledge in all the time they have owned SJP and ECFC must have had a bit of a chequered history as tenants, so it stands to reason that they are not going to be uber supportive.

They can't be seen to let the ground depreciate too far.... But neither can they justify the investment the ground needs to the ratepayers of the City. As I said in the other threads, refusal of the scheme currently on the table moves ECC further between a rock and a hard place in respect of SJP.
 
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denzel

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They can only vote on planning grounds. Anything else would be a dereliction of duty. It seems from a casual look at this that the main mistake is not engaging with the St James community. Those more versed in the matter than me could tell you what/if discussions took place when the Neighborhood Plan was being worked up. Anything contrary to this now is seemingly doomed to failure.
 

Antony Moxey

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Are you sure about that? Was the apparent £250k that Egg reported that the council stumped up to help the Chiefs' World Cup bid a planning issue? Or all of the links Rightwing's posted about councils helping out their local teams planning issues, including Plymouth City Council's help for Argyle - was that simply about planning issues?

The OP's question was do we have a supportive council: it is plain to see by anyone with eyes in their head that the answer is no, and also that there's more to helping than simply voting on planning issues, unless half the councils in England are also in dereliction of their duties.
 

dontpassback

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In a word NO !
 

denzel

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Are you sure about that? Was the apparent £250k that Egg reported that the council stumped up to help the Chiefs' World Cup bid a planning issue? Or all of the links Rightwing's posted about councils helping out their local teams planning issues, including Plymouth City Council's help for Argyle - was that simply about planning issues?

The OP's question was do we have a supportive council: it is plain to see by anyone with eyes in their head that the answer is no, and also that there's more to helping than simply voting on planning issues, unless half the councils in England are also in dereliction of their duties.
There's a difference between a financial decision made by the whole of the Council and one made by the planning committee. If one made by the latter is not made on planning grounds the threat of judicial review is very real
 

Antony Moxey

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I get that and whilst the thread title and OP's question in his post might, if you look at it from your (I guess perfectly valid) point of view above, be two different things I still think the answer to the thread title is a resounding no.
 
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