18/07/2000 Rant

By: Rob Sedgwick
Date: 04/08/2000

New Stadium

When Charlton Athletic were at Selhurst Park and wanted to return to the Valley the local labour council turned them down,so their supporters put up candidates at the next set of elections and won seats on the council, the council soon changed their tune and the club has gone on from strength to strength since that day. It unified the whole local population

Alan Hilditch

This is a copy of an e-mail sent to Austin Mitchell.

I have never before felt so strongly about something to feel the need to write to an MP. Reading about the planning vote for GTFC's proposed new stadium at Great Coates I just cannot believe that up to 20 elected councillors would ignore the advice of a paid professional, the opinions of the people that elected them and that councillors who would probably have voted for the proposal were barred from voting on declaring an interest (supporting their local football team for god's sake).

I would be interested to know your views as no doubt would thousands of other people yet I have not yet read your comments in the local press or Shona McIsaac's.

In my humble opinion NELC have just missed a huge opportunity to put Grimsby on the map, to create jobs and pump money into the local economy. Is this sane?

Is the exclusion of councillors from the voting process legal ? - one councillor who voted "no" has a public house near Blundell Park - should he have declared an interest. Presumably some of the councillors have no interest in football - does this mean they should have declared an interest in Great Coates being a football free area? I work for a business located close to Great Coates and I can see every day the skyline that must dominate the view for those who live there. I was looking forward to watching the stadium being built and its infrastructure, the jobs created and the general IMPROVEMENT to the landscape - after all these modern stadiums are very impressive and speak volumes for a town's prestige ( witness Pride Park, Stadium of Light, The Reebok, McAlpine, Britannia Stadium etc etc.).

In addition, as a company, we sponsor the odd match ball and invite customers for the day. I was hoping to show off the excellent facilities we might have had next year or the year after - instead I have to take them to BP and apologise for the stadium - which is no fault of the management there.

But no - bumbling bureaucracy and petty small-town politics have won the day.

So - what do you think - and if you agree with me - what are you going to do about it?

Yours faithfully

Steve Gladwin
Financial Director
Oerlemans Foods UK Ltd

PS. These are my personal views and are not intended to represent the view of Oerlemans Foods UK Ltd.

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