Withdean residents get militant

[Gwylan]

This has just been posted on the BHA Forums site. Look like the NIMBYs are getting more active.

"I've been involved with the attempts to limit B&H Albion's expansion of Withdean and despite the fact that their first planning permission has now been declared illegal due to no EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) being carried out the Council are still openly questioning whether one is required for the new application. As the new plans involve a major change in use (eg. increasing seating capacity from 7000 to 9000, building new hospitality suite, etc) it is absolutely essential that the impact on local residents and the LNR (Local Nature Reserve) - which ajoins the ground - is examined formally. The fact is that if a EIA is not carried out, another Judicial Review will be sought and we are looking into whether the planning committee would have willfully abused the planning p
rocess and whether further legal action may be taken against them.

Notice of the application was only sent to a very few residents immediately next to the stadium even though the impact of the planning spreads much wider. For example, parking problems in a large area around the stadium on match days will become even more of a problem. As the club have a large base of loyal supporters it is easy for them to mobilise a large number of endorsements of the application. In fact, one example of this is on the 'North Stand Chat' website where they are all urged to post a (standard) comment on the council website in support of the application. With this in mind we made 1000 copies of the application and distributed them over the wider locality over the last few days. This has resulted in the Council receiving many objections to both the application and the fact that they weren't informed of it. The Council immediately blamed the lack of distribution of the notice on a 'computer glitch' which is clearly ridiculous. This, in turn, has forced them to
issue more notices to local residents and put the closing date for objections back from the 8th of March to 23rd March.

We also feel there may be some link between the proposals for Park and Ride at Patcham and the Withdean debacle."

There are two immediate questions: firstly, is it true that there is genuine threat to us playing at Withdean and it's not a legal technality (as the club would have us believe)?

Second, is it true that there's a link between the Patcham Park and Ride and the Withdean application?

The forum can be found on
http://forums.e-democracy.org/brighton-hove/groups/bh/messages/view_email?id=38002&show_thread=1

 

[Yorkie]

I copied and pasted a post from an Allbion fan who lives in Withdean saying he had received a leaflet urging residents to oppose it. He received it only this week.

It's on History Man's thread.

 

[Dave the OAP]

I assumed the reason why we can have the extra 2000 seats is that there has been a Park and Ride allocated, which is why we couldn't build the seats before.

It will be interesting to see if that is Patcham Court Farm or Braypool, because the opposition to this is on a par to Falmer! ( Including me signing the petition to Save Braypool - which tarmacking over it is a fecking disgrace)

I wonder if the club and council are being economical with the truth on this one

 

[beorhthelm]

i believe it is a technicallity. Im also of the opinon from the original reports that it doesnt affect our playing there only us playing there with an increased capacity. Either way its seems only a new planning process, this time with the required inspection, is needed to resolve the problem. Its just the residents attempting to use this as an excuse to mount some judical/legal review of the whole thing.

 

[Tooting Gull]

I've got to be honest, I've a lot more sympathy for the Withdean residents than the NIMBYS at Falmer. What they ended up buying is increasingly not what was on the packet as regards our tenure there.

I only hope they are reasonable, as I do genuinely believe they do not want the club to disappear without a ground.

 

[Curious Orange]

It is a shame they aren't a little more patient though.

After all, I suspect that we don't want to be there more than they don't want us there!!

 

[Gwylan]

We're going to be there for at least another three years though.

There are quite clearly some residents who want to see the death of the club and will do anything to achieve it.

 

[mona]

I've got to be honest, I've a lot more sympathy for the Withdean residents than the NIMBYS at Falmer. What they ended up buying is increasingly not what was on the packet as regards our tenure there.

I only hope they are reasonable, as I do genuinely believe they do not want the club to disappear without a ground.

They have nothing to whinge about and deserve no sympathy.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Have you ever been to Withdean (the area) during the close season?

Funnily enough, the hedgerows are full of litter and turds. Not from football fans, but from lazy locals. They cause the problem, but during the football season, the Albion, mugs that we are, have to clear it up. So we come along 23 days out of 365, and have to tidy up litter, much of which would be there regardless of the football.

Does any other area of the city have its own private litter patrol, I ask myself? The locals must secretly be gutted when the football season is over and their hedges and grass verges return to their usual untidy state.

I actually heard one say the other day that the value of his house had dropped by 15% since the Albion had been playing there. I'm no estate agent, but is that the biggest load of old crap or what?

 

[The History Man]

Funnily enough, the hedgerows are full of litter and turds. Not from football fans, but from lazy locals. They cause the problem, but during the football season, the Albion, mugs that we are, have to clear it up. So we come along 23 days out of 365, and have to tidy up litter, much of which would be there regardless of the football.

Would love to know who "the Albion, mugs that we are, have to clear it up" really means.

In fact I can tell you. It's me every single bl**dy match, Paul Whelch (litter patrol co-ordinator), and about half a dozen others each season.

I am not trying to have a go at Edna or any other individual, but I do get annoyed at statements like the above when there's only about 10 people who bother to do it on behalf of the rest of the 6,500 fans.

Anyone interested should be by the mobile shop after a match. And you do get a free £5 McDonalds voucher now.

 

[Seagull73]

I don't think she was having a go at the Litter patrollers, I think she was making the point that the locals are lazy, and yet the Albion litter patrollers clear up their mess as well as ours. Nobody but nobdy could say that the litter patrollers are mugs per se....

 

[Easy 10]

I picked up paper bag on the way to the Sunderland match.
(but only cos I thought it was a screwed up fiver)



*tight*

 

[Colbourne Kid]

"I actually heard one say the other day that the value of his house had dropped by 15% since the Albion had been playing there. I'm no estate agent, but is that the biggest load of old crap or what?"



The evidence from local estate agents - collected for the Inquiry into Falmer was quite conclusive. The fastest growing area in Brighton and Hove for house prices was



Westdene
(which is what the residents like to call the estate around the stadium)

 

[The History Man]

I know Edna wasn't having a go at the litter patrollers, she wasn't calling them mugs, and I am not having a go at her.

All I am trying to say is that other supporters should be prepared to do a litter patrol.

Since I first organised them in 1999 I suspect there have been no more than one hundred people volunteered. That is pathetic.

 

[Gwylan]

I saw a survey about a year or so ago that found that property prices around sports stadia rise faster than similar properties in the same region.

Have been trying to find it ever since.

 

[Bobby's Gull]

Is Brighton just full of bloody NIMBY'S??

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Whilst the need to resubmit the Withdean planning application arises from a "technicality", we shouldn't underestimate the potential seriousness of the situation.

The Club needs planning permission not just for 2,000 extra seats. It needs permission to continue playing at Withdean at all.

The reason for this is a High Court decision about a completely different planning case, following a legal challenge initiated by residents of Withdean.

In effect, the validity of previous planning permissions has been over-turned, and we have to start with a fresh set of paperwork.

At the Public Inquiry, the City Council's planning witness was asked whether the extension of permission to stay at Withdean for the next three years was a simple formality. He answered that the City Council would have to "look at the new planning application afresh".

I am certain that the City Council leadership intend to ensure that the Albion can stay at Withdean until we are ready to move to Falmer. The problem is that there is a bunch of residents who are determined to stop us doing that. Unfortunately, these are the same residents with the track record of successfully challenging the City Council's planning procedures in the High Court.

Now, I'm no lawyer. But my guess is that if the City Council turned down our application to stay at Withdean, we could carry on playing there until the completion of an appeal process - which might involve yet another Public Inquiry. But I'm not taking anything for granted.

 

[Yorkie]

That was why I tried to highlight the fact that Withdean residents are trying to get support for opposing the planning permission. If we cannot complete our fixture list at Withdean we can be expelled from the League.