Welcome to the 5th edition of FOULMouth, the voice of FOUL (Fighting for Oxford United's Life). Since the last edition of FOULMouth in early September whilst FOUL has still been very much alive and well, we've spent most of the time waiting. Firstly we've been waiting for the outcome of Pentith's Judicial Review application and secondly we've been waiting whilst commercial negotiations continued between Firoz Kassam and Taylor Woodrow. These negotiations related not only to the restarting of the stadium development itself but also the CVA and Taylor Woodrow's option to purchase The Manor site for residential development.
There have been significant events in relation to both of these issues and we are now entering an important period which will determine the fate of not only the new stadium but also the future of the club and even the City Council.
As many will already know disgruntled developer, Nick Pentith, who failed to gain planning permission for a leisure development at Oxpens Road after a public inquiry last year joined with the Oxpens land owners, Rail Property Ltd. to seek a Judicial Review of Oxford City Council's decision to grant planning permission for a multiplex cinema at Minchery Farm and the decision of John Prescott not to intervene in this matter.
At the beginning of November came the very welcome news that the judge hearing the application had decided there were no grounds for a Judicial Review and refused the application. As usual celebrations (such as they were) were short lived. On the appeal deadline we heard that Pentith/Rail Property had re-applied for a JR against the City Council's decision (effectively appealing the earlier decision) but had dropped the action against John Prescott.
In the meantime FOUL had contacted Rail Property, John Prescott, British Railways Board (who control Rail Property for the Government) and all the local Oxfordshire MPs to protest at the ridiculous situation whereby one part of John Prescott's department (the still nationalised British Railways Board) was seeking a legal challenge to the decision of another part of the same department (Planning section of DETR).
It eventually became apparent that this new application for a JR was going to take a lot longer than the first application because it would now require a full court hearing. The earliest date for this could be March and it is possible that it could be as late as next July!
We were aware that the wait for the initial JR decision had meant that the City Council had not pushed ahead with the land deal with Firoz Kassam at Minchery Farm but as this was decided in a matter of weeks it was not seen as a major issue. If the City Council were to stick to this position in light of the changed circumstances then we believe this could call into question not only the restart of the stadium but also the CVA and the future survival of Oxford United. FOUL was therefore very pleased to hear Cllr. Carole Roberts (vice chair of Strategy & Resources) on Thames Valley FM state that the new JR application would not hold up the land deal. Further encouragement came on 18th November when the leader of the City Council, John Tanner was extensively quoted in the Oxford Mail saying much the same thing.
FOUL had already arranged a meeting with John Tanner for that same evening and we used the opportunity to impress upon him our very real concerns that further delays to the completion of the land deal would have a serious impact on the club's move to Minchery Farm and its future survival.
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November 24th turned out to be a fairly historic day in the recent history of Oxford United and its fight for survival. On the football side of things came the news that Mickey Lewis had been appointed as First Team Coach until the end of the season and that Ray Harford would take up the position of Technical Director at the club. However more importantly Oxford City Council finally got around to signing the "Heads of Terms" of the agreement to transfer the land at Minchery Farm to Firoz Kassam. Whilst the "Heads" themselves aren't legally binding they do signal the intent of the City Council to proceed with the deal that they had agreed to at the full council meeting in the first week of October. Further encouragement came with the announcement that the Council planned to sign the full agreement by 17th December of this year and John Tanner's statement that "as far as the taxpaying people of Oxford are concerned [the signing of the Heads] is solemn and binding" |
FOUL, along with all Oxford United supporters will be watching extremely closely to make sure that the council stick to this timetable in order for work to start again at Minchery Farm almost three years after the longest (as reported by Keith Cox at the time) "Christmas Break" the construction industry has ever seen. It is particularly important that the agreement is concluded without any further delays because its completion is required for the success of the CVA which must be finalised by 27th January next year.
In addition to the signing of the land agreement two other issues remain to be resolved at Minchery Farm before the club can finally move. Firstly there is the issue of a settlement with Thames Water, who originally owned the land, to remove their covenant stating that the land could only be used for leisure purposes. FOUL have been in touch with Thames Water directly who have told us that they expect to (reluctantly) agree to the settlement proposed by Oxford City Council which is in relation to not only the stadium site but also the social housing land to the east of Minchery Farm. The Council's view was until now less optimistic but in recent days Council officers have stated that they also believe this to be the case. Because of this FOUL doesn't expect Thames Water to stand in the way of work restarting on the stadium.
The second issue is related to Les Wells, a land owner adjacent to the leisure site at Minchery Farm, who is claiming a right of way across the stadium site and threatening legal action to either enforce this or claim compensation. As far as FOUL can work out Mr Wells has managed to carry on his business at Minchery Farm for the last 5 years without use of this access and we can only assume that such a claim has more to do with a bargaining position in negotiations to sell his land rather than because of genuine access problems. Mr Wells was in negotiations with Keith Cox to sell his land to the club and has also contacted Firoz Kassam with the same thing in mind.
FOUL met with Firoz Kassam after the recent home game against Bury. Kassam explained to us that until the land deal with the council was signed he was not able to restart work on the stadium and complete the CVA with the unsecured creditors, the largest of which is Taylor Woodrow. He told us that he has already run up a legal bill in relation to this of over £600,000 and was very concerned that the City Council were dragging their feet and this was the main reason for the delay. As reported above there have been significant developments since this meeting.
Kassam also revealed that the negotiations with Taylor Woodrow to agree on a price for completing the stadium and the amount they would pay for the Manor site had run into difficulties. Because of their insistence on either more money for the stadium or a lower price for the Manor a number of cut backs had been considered in the stadium design and specification. Even with these changes he was still unable to agree with Taylor Woodrow and therefore has now reached a settlement regarding their outstanding debt under the CVA and their option to purchase the Manor. He explained how he could only go ahead and make this payment once the land deal with the council was completed but once the deal was done there only remain issues on which he was prepared to take a commercial risk and none of these would stand in the way of a restart at Minchery Farm.
Three new contractors have been asked to tender on a fixed price contract basis to complete the three sides of the stadium. They have been asked to do this based on the original specification and any changes that were required to fall within Taylor Woodrow's budget are now back in the plans.
When we met with Firoz Kassam we explained how we felt it important for the club to not only communicate with the supporters more regularly but to give them the chance to ask questions of the board at an open meeting as soon as possible. Kassam agreed that such a meeting would be held at the social club where he would be able to give a full update and answer questions. This meeting will take place on Wednesday 8th December at 7:30 in the social club.
As is the tradition with all publications at this time of the year we thought it would be appropriate to look back at some of the key events over the last 12 months. Not least because since the last edition of FOULMouth FOUL passed an important milestone with our first b irthday on November 10th.
Here are some of the highlights and low points since that first meeting last November in the supporters social club.
November '98
FOUL would like to thank the countless number of members who have helped out over the last 12 months with everything from handing out leaflets to carrying out door to door opinion surveys.
Also a special mention to the following local businesses run by Oxford supporters who have helped us print and distribute literally thousands of copies of FOULMouth and leaflets this year.
Oxford, United will never be defeated!
