Society of Sussex Downsmen - it's war

[attila]

From today's Telegraph (no, I didn't buy it!)

"How can you sympathise with a club which had a perfectly good stadium seven years ago but sold it to Toys R Us?" asks Paul Millmore of the Sussex Downsmen.

I've told them how you can, and why!

So can you. Politely, of course.

info@sussexdownsmen.org.uk

 

[Marc]

done

 

[Tooting Gull]

This might help.

Paul Millmore 01273 xxxxxx
paulmillmore@compuserve.com

Politely, of course, in any correspondence. What annoys me about these people is that there is a presumption that it is them against the world over the South Downs. Arrogant twats. We're all very proud of the Downs, they're beautiful. We just want a stadium as well. Plenty of room for both.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

This might help.

Paul Millmore 01273 xxxxxx
paulmillmore@compuserve.com

Politely, of course, in any correspondence. What annoys me about these people is that there is a presumption that it is them against the world over the South Downs. Arrogant twats. We're all very proud of the Downs, they're beautiful. We just want a stadium as well. Plenty of room for both.

I've done some moderating here. That is Paul Millmore's home phone number. He doesn't work from home. I see no reason why his family should be subjected to phone messages that they can't deal with.

 

[Tooting Gull]

Fair enough Lord B, that number was released in official 'Downsmen' literature so I assumed it was a fair game contact number. Home is probably a bit harsh.

 

[mona]

As somebody who loves the South Downs, I tried to reason with this organisation a long time back. I was amazed by their ignorance of local issues so this response doesn't surprise me. I pointed out that all the golf courses with their big clubhouses and ever-expanding car parks were a bigger environmental threat than Falmer Stadium. The Sussex Downsmen had no policy on race courses and were quite happy that Goodwood (in use 23+ days a year) with its huge stands was right on the crest of the South Downs.
My conclusion was that this nimby organisation knew little about Sussex or the Downs. Their web site is www.sussexdownsmen.org.uk/
Their attitude has been very narrow towards Brighton but they probably object to any place built on the Downs!

 

[Storer68]

nimby tossers.

 

[perseus]

You cannot reason with them on anything. Not just Falmer. They want to dictate to the public. (See the amendment in a different message below. This refers to the South Downs Conservation Board.)

I have got it in writing they are intractably opposed to any team sporting activities (probably not fox hunting) in any part of the current AONB and proposed National Park, and that they are opposed to the Falmer stadium on other grounds like transport as well.

In other words they are bananas.

The value would be if you write to them and then use the substance of their reply as a criticism of their attitude in a letter to the Argus.

PS: they are opposed to golf courses on the downs as well, which is a good thing because golf courses are usually a ruse to get tax exemption for spoil dumping.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Fair enough Lord B, that number was released in official 'Downsmen' literature so I assumed it was a fair game contact number. Home is probably a bit harsh.

Cheers, Tooting.

Paul Millmore is another of those people I've known for years. We used to work together. He is the author of the Ordnance Survey's guide to the South Downs Way, published in the National Trail Guide series. I even worked with him on updating some of the information that has gone into the recently revised edition.

First Tim Cutress, now Paul Millmore. I'm beginning to think that I'm a weak link in this campaign!

 

[chips and gravy]

Bananas = build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone

 

[Simster]

Inspector Hoile is my bitch. In fact, not only that, he does my ironing on Sunday night and we still consider each other best of friends.

Actually, we guessed as much Lord B.

 

[The Large One]

And it was nine years ago, not seven - the ignorant prannet.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

ho ho Simster.

Do I know you?

Have we ever met?

 

[attila]

You do hang around with some tree huggers don't you Bracknell?
If you know that Downsman idiot, tell him just how offensive that comment was for all those of us who battled to save the Albion from those bastards.
I used to like the Downs, but I couldn't give a shit now.

 

[Superphil]

Just sent the following email

Dear sirs

I really think you should take a little more interest in the facts surrounding current affairs regarding the application for a Community Stadium at Falmer. I refer to your article in the Telegraph

""How can you sympathise with a club which had a perfectly good stadium seven years ago but sold it to Toys R Us?" asks Paul Millmore of the Sussex Downsmen.

I'm sure you know exactly what happened with regards to the Goldstone ground the "perfectly good stadium" you refer to.

The club DID NOT SELL A PERFECTLY GOOD STADIUM, a devious property developer took advantage of the club, acquired its holding company and sold the stadium.

It was acquired for around £57 by a property developer called Bill Archer (one of the country's 50 richest men) who in turn sold the ground with no consultation or consideration to the club and its fans, he even changed the constitution of the club to try and cover his tracks. He had no plans for the future of the club and quite simply was out to make his personal fortune bigger. The company he sold it to was, I believe, also attached to him, who consequently sold it again for an even bigger profit.

Please don't offer your biased opinion to the press, we (the fans and the club) have tried all along to be transparent about what has gone on, if it wasn't for one particular Brighton and Hove Albion fan the Goldstone Ground would have been sold in secrecy and Mr Archer would have been off back to Lancashire before we had even realised what was going on.

I respect organisations like yours, we are all responsible citizens, and the facts are clear, Brighton & Hove Albion made a planning application to the Council and they have given permission for the new stadium to be built.

There is now a public enquiry pending, no-one on the side of the club have made false claims, I don't think the spokesman of Sussex Downsmen should make false claims, especially not in a national newspaper.

The land it will occupy is not an AONB, it is partly squalid old asbestos clad university buildings and a small field located between a railway line and the A27 dual carriageway.

When the Stadium is completed you will find out that the club has achieved something stunning, far from creating an eyesore in the downs it will be considered a jewel in the crown of the County of Sussex, and your organisation will derive benefits form it as well as countless other organisations in the Sussex area.

I am not in any way affiliated to the Club, I am simply a passionate supporter of Brighton & Hove Albion and I can't bear the negative press we are getting, I felt I should put forward the fans point of view, which I believe includes the facts pertaining to your claim.
Yours sincerely

 

[FamilyGuy]

Well worded SuperPhil, nicely done.

 

[Superphil]

Why thank you.

Does anyone know who wrote the article in the Telegraph?

Perhaps if anyone does they can send him a copy of the email I sent.

I don't read the Telegraph so don't ghave the article.

 

[Rusthall Seagull]

Very well put ! I tried to write, but found my anger too much to contain, hence my letter would have been redundant.

 

[perseus]

Correction: I was actually referring to the Sussex Downs Conservation Board. They are bananas and worse than that if the same people are on the South Downs National Park, they could have planning powers.

The Sussex Downsman are a different bunch but probably connected in some way. There role is protect the downs from development and that I think that they are mistaking a sow's ear for a silk purse over the muddy field at Falmer and that they are really should be spending more attention to the eyesores and areas of poor management over the downs. I would inclined to take a gentle line with them. Most of them seem to be a lot of old codgers.

However, in the past a prominent member of the Sussex Downsman was an avid football-hater and he seemed to reserve a special animosity for Brighton & Hove Albion for reasons unknown to me. This is a long standing aversion and pre-dated Dick Knight's reign and goes back a long way. As I understand it he is no longer an active participant in the Sussex Downsmen but I would venture he coloured their attitudes at the outset.

All these downs groups seem to have friends in high places.

The workers on the ground are forced to implement and even agree with the dictates from above in what to me are heirarchal organisations of the last century.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Does anyone know who wrote the article in the Telegraph?

I dont know whether the newspaper gives the author's name. The Telegraph website doesn't.

Here's the story:-

Brighton will hove to if stadium wrongs turn into last rites.

Suppose there was no such thing as Roy Keane. Imagine railway platforms free of drunks in Burberry baseball caps. What if men with IQs below sea-level were no longer paid £2 million a year to spit in public? What if Saturday afternoons were for sailing or pressing wild flowers? Life in a football-free zone sounds rather appealing. It's coming to Brighton any day now.

All it needs is for John Prescott to agree with the Government inspector that there is no case for a new stadium on a greenfield site and Brighton and Hove Albion are done for.

Yeah, yeah, you've heard it all before. Notts County, Oldham, York City, Leeds United - they've all been read the last rites and they're still breathing. Brighton's case, I assure you, is different. It must be for Des Lynam to get all fired up. He told me: "There's nowhere else for Brighton to go. We can't let this club fade away."

Now I'd like you to take a walk through Falmer where Des and 60,000 more Seagulls' petitioners would like to watch football in the future. It's halfway between Brighton and Lewes. Hear the skylarks? Smell the primroses? Never mind, the wind must be in the wrong direction.

You'll notice it's a warm wind rather like the Sirocco. It's been whipped up by Falmer Parish Council, the Society of Sussex Downsmen and a planning inspector who probably turned up for games with a sick note each week. Can you believe these pillars of South Coast society don't think football is the be all and end all?

They should have been at a draughty little athletics stadium called Withdean to witness Albion's 3-0 demolition of Bournemouth on Saturday. There's more atmosphere in a departure lounge at Gatwick and yet Mark McGhee's asylum-seekers found the motivation to keep the club on track for the Division Two play-offs.

Gary Hart, Trevor Benjamin and Leon Knight banged in the goals like an act of defiance while 5,000 shivering fans held up slogans: "Say yes to the stadium!"

"Over our tombs," the nimbies would reply. They've got it into their heads that the proposed site at Falmer is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty just because it says so. I wouldn't take my mother-in-law for a picnic anywhere near the place.

A dirty great dual carriageway called the A27 tends to drown conversation. Whoever designed Brighton University next door either had a good sense of humour or a bad dose of haemorrhoids.

A community football stadium would improve the look of Falmer as well as provide a thousand jobs and give this surprisingly scruffy city something to be proud of. Whatever is decided, somebody's going to build something soon on the ploughed field in question. Would the doubters rather have a Tesco?

I can see that football lovers have bigger blind spots than most. "How can you sympathise with a club which had a perfectly good stadium seven years ago but sold it to Toys R Us?" asks Paul Millmore of the Sussex Downsmen. It's pointless telling him that it was a different regime in those days - that the cowboys have gone now.

It's pointless telling this 2,800-strong charity that the disappearance of Brighton and Hove Albion would undermine the foundations of English League football because they would argue that a stadium at Falmer would consume another chunk of the chalk downlands which have given more pleasure to more people than a simple game of kick and rush.

Back to practicalities. Brighton have spent £5 million they don't have preparing the Falmer project, paying solicitors at the protracted public inquiry and bringing Withdean up to Football League standards. It costs £40,000 a match to rent and steward the athletics track as well as provide a park and ride scheme and yet it only holds 7,000 people.

The club are losing money as each day goes by. If directors stopped writing cheques, no one would get paid. Obviously it cannot go on.

In the likely event of the Deputy Prime Minister turning his thumbs down this week or next and thereby risking the prospects of three Labour MPs in the immediate area, I have an alternative plan. Instead of blowing millions on a pier the citizens didn't really want (or it wouldn't have burned down in the first place) why not build a football stadium half a mile out in the English Channel? It has to be better than Punch and Judy.