OiRef
Guest
Arrived at the meeting a couple of minutes before kick off to find the public area overflowing. Lots of Blues supporters I thought, only to quickly change my mind as I took in the demographics, I was in amongst the away end !
The whistle blew and expecting, Blues to be the main fixture, I was rather surprised to find the opening game being played over planning permission for a block of flats ! It was a lively if extended match with the public gallery clapping the councillors that they supported and murmuring loudly whenever anyone uttered an opinion that they disagreed with.
Not quite the atmosphere of a local derby but fun enough. And, eventually an hour after the advertised time the subject of Fossetts farm took to the pitch. As it did so, so the hall rapidly emptied leaving a few bemused people behind. So no away end, and a Chairman who had assessed his audience wisely. Everyone had come to hear the flat vote !
Rochford councillors seemed rather disappointed that they could only raise questions about the new ground and not actually vote on it. Anything queries that they did raise would be put to Southend council for them to consider when making their decision, although Rochford would get a vote regarding the training ground pitches etc.
The opening remarks were not encouraging. The obligatory remarks about how ‘green’ and self sustaining it would be were made. There was also concern about Southend soil contaminating Rochford soil during construction. Someone also mentioned flooding !
I was very tempted at this point to suggest that Blues build a hydroelectric plant, using a dam made out of Southend Soil, thus addressing all three concerns at once. But, unlike the preceding crowd, the football supporters were allowing everyone to have their say uninterrupted. A truly democratic performance that those who are so ready to label football supporters as scum should have witnessed !
The main concern was of course traffic levels and car parking. And Southend United better be prepared with complete and accurate response to these questions. Many queried some road survey results that suggested there would only be a 4% rise in traffic levels along Sutton Road. As the club will only be providing 500 car parking spaces those figures are likely to be correct but again Blues should expect some strong tackles going in around this subject.
All twenty or so Rochford councillors were invited to visit the site by Blues, but only five took up the offer. They were quite vocal in their support of the ground, as were others. So there may be a few yellow cards flying around on traffic issues, but I didn’t see much evidence of anyone being prepared to take a dive and so force a red card to be raised against the new ground.
That’s not to say Blues are home and safe. A lot of work on the environmental issues will need to be done to satisfy enough of the council to get an all to rare Blues win !
The whistle blew and expecting, Blues to be the main fixture, I was rather surprised to find the opening game being played over planning permission for a block of flats ! It was a lively if extended match with the public gallery clapping the councillors that they supported and murmuring loudly whenever anyone uttered an opinion that they disagreed with.
Not quite the atmosphere of a local derby but fun enough. And, eventually an hour after the advertised time the subject of Fossetts farm took to the pitch. As it did so, so the hall rapidly emptied leaving a few bemused people behind. So no away end, and a Chairman who had assessed his audience wisely. Everyone had come to hear the flat vote !
Rochford councillors seemed rather disappointed that they could only raise questions about the new ground and not actually vote on it. Anything queries that they did raise would be put to Southend council for them to consider when making their decision, although Rochford would get a vote regarding the training ground pitches etc.
The opening remarks were not encouraging. The obligatory remarks about how ‘green’ and self sustaining it would be were made. There was also concern about Southend soil contaminating Rochford soil during construction. Someone also mentioned flooding !
I was very tempted at this point to suggest that Blues build a hydroelectric plant, using a dam made out of Southend Soil, thus addressing all three concerns at once. But, unlike the preceding crowd, the football supporters were allowing everyone to have their say uninterrupted. A truly democratic performance that those who are so ready to label football supporters as scum should have witnessed !
The main concern was of course traffic levels and car parking. And Southend United better be prepared with complete and accurate response to these questions. Many queried some road survey results that suggested there would only be a 4% rise in traffic levels along Sutton Road. As the club will only be providing 500 car parking spaces those figures are likely to be correct but again Blues should expect some strong tackles going in around this subject.
All twenty or so Rochford councillors were invited to visit the site by Blues, but only five took up the offer. They were quite vocal in their support of the ground, as were others. So there may be a few yellow cards flying around on traffic issues, but I didn’t see much evidence of anyone being prepared to take a dive and so force a red card to be raised against the new ground.
That’s not to say Blues are home and safe. A lot of work on the environmental issues will need to be done to satisfy enough of the council to get an all to rare Blues win !
