New Season - New Stadium?
Welcome back to a new season and a new FOULMouth. For those who don't already know, FOULMouth is the (fairly) regular newsletter of FOUL (Fighting for Oxford United's Life) which is designed to keep Oxford United supporters up to date with news about the proposed move to our new stadium and the fight for the club's survival.
Catching Up
As always a lot has happened since the last FOULMouth. More often than not
any good news that we have to report is tempered by the seemingly countless set-backs that almost inevitably come
along with a step nearer to Minchery Farm. Well this time we believe the good news far outweighs the bad.
A Quick Recap
Lets have a quick recap on where things stood at the end of last season
when the last FOULMouth was written. The only positive news we had to report back then was the signing of the land
deal for Minchery Farm between the club and Oxford City Council. Even this was a short lived boost as it soon became
apparent that the land deal was signed subject to four outstanding issues being resolved.
These issues all stood in the way of the club restarting work on the stadium at Minchery Farm. As most supporters
will know the stadium restart depends mainly on the development of a multiplex cinema and leisure complex at Minchery
Farm that will provide the required funding to finish the stadium (approximately £10 million). The four remaining
issues were:
A Judicial Review into the decision by Oxford City Council (OCC) to grant planning permission for the multiplex
cinema which was being pursued by developer Nick Pentith.
Settlement of the covenant that Morrells of Oxford hold forbidding the sale of alcohol within half a mile of the Blackbird Pub.
Financial settlement with Thames Water for the club's and Council's breach of their covenant at Minchery Farm (restricting land use to non-commercial leisure).
The claim by Les Wells for compensation for the loss of his alleged right
of way across the stadium site.
FOUL have consistently believed that all of these claims apart from that of Thames Water were motivated purely
by greed and had no real merit.
If That Wasn't Enough
On top of all this the club still had to gain permission from the Football Licensing Authority (FLA) to continue using the Manor ground terracing for another season despite it not meeting the requirements of the Taylor report. If all that wasn't enough we faced the prospect of a change in control of the City Council and the possibility that a new administration may take a different view on the various aspects of the clubs relocation and survival plans.
Looking at this list of major obstacles that stood in our way 3 months ago it seemed that he club was as far away as ever from Minchery Farm.
At Last - Good News!
The first good news came with the news that the FLA had given the club another season's grace to stay at the Manor whilst the new stadium plans were still alive. One down and five to go.
Judicial Review
Perhaps the biggest single obstacle listed above was the Judicial Review.
If that was lost and the multiplex planning permission revoked then the chances of building the stadium would be
very slim indeed. At the hearing in March at which the JR was granted, the judge had indicated that he would recommend
that an early date be set aside for the JR. We hoped at the time that this might be as early as May. In the event
a date of July 17 was set, and as the date approached FOUL became increasingly concerned about an apparent lack
of preparation for a vigorous defence on the part of the City Council. For example we found ourselves chasing the
court transcript from the March hearing (surely a key document in that it would indicate the ground on which the
JR was to be granted), which it appeared that no-one in the Council's legal department had troubled to do!
As it turned out the council's preparations weren't put to the test because at the eleventh hour Nick Pentith came
to an agreement with the Council over the development plans for Oxpens Road and withdrew his JR application. The
fact that Pentith had finally done what we'd urged him to do for months didn't take away the relief that WE'D WON.
Total lack of Morrells
Good news also came form the high court when we heard that a summary judgement
on the Morrells issue had gone in favour of the club and against Morrells. It was ruled that their covenant could
not be transferred with the land and no longer applied once the Council no longer owned it. Celebrations were short
lived though as right on the deadline Morrells referred the matter to the court of appeal. A tense few weeks went
by as we waited for the three judges to make their decision. Great news again, we won - 3- nil. (When was the last
time we did that away from home?). Although Morrells could have appealed this to the House of Lords it appears
that the deadline has now passed and we haven't heard any bad news. Three down and three to go.
We must not forget at this point the Greater Leys Residents Association, who have also fallen foul (no pun intended)
of this covenant, which is currently preventing them from setting up a shop on the Greater Leys estate. Until it
becomes absolutely clear that Morrells have no intention of pursuing the case to the House of Lords, and they agree
to drop their objection to a shop in Greater Leys being allowed to sell alcohol, FOUL advises fans to continue
to boycott Morrells' premises and products.
Troubled Waters?
The next two issues Thames Water and a possible change of direction on the
City Council turned out to be very much linked.
The May Council elections saw the power balance shift away from Labour, who lost their majority, leaving Lib Dems.
and Labour with equal numbers of seats (21), the Greens with 8 and Conservatives with a single seat. Perhaps even
more worrying than the loss of control by the Labour group was the news that John Tanner, the Labour Council Leader
who had been very supportive of Minchery Farm had lost his seat. John Tanner had been central to the council's
generally positive (if extremely slow) stance towards the club over the last 2 years.
New Council - New Danger?
Naturally, our concern in FOUL was that the changing Council power balance
might unsettle this commitment. We met in turn with the leader of the Lib Dems (Corinna Redman), with Alex Hollingsworth
the leader of the Labour group, and with four of the Green councillors as a group led by Paul Ingram. Each of these
meetings was, we felt, positive, and we were in general reassured that the new Council did not propose to take
a substantially different position with regard to Minchery Farm, assuming that we could take at face value what
we were told.
Not Another Court Case?
What did become apparent was that the Liberal Democrat group, who were now
effectively in control of Council policy, were seriously considering whether to challenge the Thames Water covenant
decision which had been decided by a high court hearing almost 2 years earlier. There motivation for doing this
was because the judge had ruled that local authorities did not have the right to overrule this sort of covenant
as had been previously accepted to be the case. Pushed on by other local councils around the country their was
a real danger that such an appeal could take months to be settled and put back the stadium plans another year if
not kill them off totally. FOUL lobbied the councillors heavily to come to a financial settlement with Thames Water
and drop any thought of an appeal.
More Good News?
At the time of the opening game of the season we were waiting to hear what
the Council planned to do and therefore waited before issuing the first FOULMouth edition of the season. Since
then we have learned that the Council have decided not to appeal the decision and they are now finalising the details
with Thames Water about the financial settlement. Another victory and two more potential hurdles removed.
All's Well that Ends Wells
The final issue concerns Les Wells who owns land adjacent to the stadium
complex, and his alleged right of way across the stadium site. We feel that on this issue, as on the Thames Water
issue, Council officials have not distinguished themselves with their speed and responsiveness. In a way, we can
understand Les Wells' frustration, which has led him to make what we believe to be wilder and wilder claims for
compensation. The Land Registry is the relevant public body with regard to rights of way, and it acts as a register
of claims and counter-claims until an issue is brought to court or otherwise resolved. FOUL has been concerned
that Council officers do not seem to have treated this process with promptness, which may count against it if a
case comes to court. We have recently learned that the Council have at last taken the first steps towards achieving
a legal ruling that should settle this issue once and for all. Again we will be watching very closely to make sure
that no more time is lost and that the Council remove this obstacle once and for all.
Of course there is always the chance that Mr Wells will come to his senses and see that he runs the risk of losing
any chance of a profit from his land at Minchery Farm if the court case (as is very likely) goes against him and
his claim for a right of way is rejected. For those who don't know the intimate details of this claim its worth
mentioning that the disputed right of way doesn't actually go anywhere and is parallel to a brand new road that
is designed to take up to 10,000 cars per hour!
Where Are We Now?
All in all not a bad summer. We now seem closer to the restart of work on
the new stadium than we have ever been since FOUL was formed back in November 1998. Whilst the City Council need
to follow through on a number of issues which we will be watching very closely the initiative is now very much
with Firoz Kassam and the destiny of the club is finally in the hands of its owner rather than the high court.
We feel sure that Mr Kassam will move forward in the very near future and announce a restart date. Having come
this far and overcome so many obstacles, where others may have given up, we feel confident that Firoz Kassam will
continue to show faith in the future of Oxford United Football Club. Positive news about Minchery Farm can't fail
to give everybody at the club a much needed boost and hopefully can act as a catalyst for a change of fortune where
we now need it most. On the pitch.
Maurice Evans
I'm sure we echo the feelings of all true Oxford supporters when we say
how sad we were to hear of the sudden death of Maurice Evans just a week ago. Everybody knows the role that Maurice
played in the club's finest hour back in 1986 and the way in which he served the club for many years as chief scout
and more recently as director of football before his move back to Reading.
What many supporters will not be aware of is the work behind the scenes that Maurice did during his time as a director
to help keep the club afloat and his efforts to find new investors for the stadium project once the Grenoble Investments
financial consortium fell apart and brought about the formation of FOUL.
FM8 included a breakdown of FOUL's income and expenditure from 1998 to date. A copy of this can be found here.
Oxford, United will never be defeated!
