SO when will the takeover go through?

[Smiffy]

what are the ramifications if the Winding up order is set back another month.
Impact on income? recruitment? Consortium? Stadium? Etc

My assumption would be a frozen club bank account, with applications to the courts to unfreeze for general day to day costs. No season card sales, no player transfers in or out and very much the status quo of nothing particularly positive (on the surface) happening.

Unless of course the consortium take another huge leap of faith and settle the WUP themselves and add it to Ron's bill. Fair play to the guys if they do this.

Let's hope that isn't required and SCC complete the soon to be forever banned term (Due Diligence) and we are in a much happier place in the next couple of weeks. Quite frankly, the alternative doesn't bear thinking about.

All we can do is hope that next seasons prep is not ruined yet again and firstly, we actually start the season and secondly, on a level playing field.

 

[tommy tucker]

We all know what a shister Ron martin is .He keeps spouting he wants this take over to go through .But the longer this rubbish goes on .The more Southend uniyed will suffer .Does Martin care i doubt it .Will the pull there finger out before the next high court hearing .I doubt that also .So that leaves kevun in limbo again .I feel so sorry forthe bloke to have to put up with this **** again .

 

[Avl1983]

Thanks James, that makes more sense now.

Fingers crossed things start to speed up soon then.

 

[GBJ]

I voted for June, I think. Just conscious of how close 15th May is. Either way, once it does complete, although we'll have to wait until Fossetts gets planning permission granted for Roots Hall to come back, at least COSU will get the club and POSU will get an asset in the new training ground - that would already be an improvement over the assetless situation of the previous 25 years.

Appreciate you may not be able (or want to) answer this J, but has the timeline for this been discussed by the council?

Also, Is there any possibility of the PP being outright rejected? The Echo have printed a couple of letters recently which haven’t exactly painted the proposal in the best of light and we’ve even had our own doom mongers on here masquerading as fans (hello Ghost, ya oddball ) Is there a chance the plans get derailed due to negative feedback from local residents?

 

[leeblue]

As always thanks to @Medway Blue for the simplified version of events that are awfully convoluted thanks to ratty mcratface.

 

[Holy Joe]

Appreciate you may not be able (or want to) answer this J, but has the timeline for this been discussed by the council?

Also, Is there any possibility of the PP being outright rejected? The Echo have printed a couple of letters recently which haven’t exactly painted the proposal in the best of light and we’ve even had our own doom mongers on here masquerading as fans (hello Ghost, ya oddball ) Is there a chance the plans get derailed due to negative feedback from local residents?

In the report it says PP application is expected over the summer (not sure it states what year) but that it will also need to be referred to secretary of state for call in. So maybe end of 2024 at the soonest, possibly longer given the previous timescales of planning applications taking years rather than weeks/months for decision

Always a risk of pp being declined, but I'd be relatively confident planning will be issued

 

[Sammy Shrimper]

A revised Planning Application by Ron Martin would probably cost in the region of £200,000 to £250,000. It’s not just the Architect, they’ll be a whole team of other consultants to be paid.
Where’s the loose change Jack ?
May be the BVI account?

 

[Medway Blue]

Appreciate you may not be able (or want to) answer this J, but has the timeline for this been discussed by the council?

Also, Is there any possibility of the PP being outright rejected? The Echo have printed a couple of letters recently which haven’t exactly painted the proposal in the best of light and we’ve even had our own doom mongers on here masquerading as fans (hello Ghost, ya oddball ) Is there a chance the plans get derailed due to negative feedback from local residents?

It has been intimated that the planning process will take a minimum of 9 months from the point when the plans are submitted, but I think that's best-case scenario and probably on the optimistic side.

I think that incorporates the expected call-in from the SoS, as the plans include a small parcel of land which is designated as green belt. I can't personally see the plans being rejected by the SoS on that basis, but it's a process which might add delays.

I'm not 100% sure, but negative resident feedback alone probably won't derail plans. If a lot of that negativity is around the risk that the council has taken on regarding the higher-end rents and potential difficulty in filling all the units, then the council should be able to turn around and say that the neutral market professionals that they employed to carry-out the property due diligence believe it will work, and they have the knowledge and expertise to be able to say that.

The amount of affordable housing might be an issue, as the currently slated 13-15% falls short of the council's own directive of 30%. I think the "affordable" element would have been priced at 80% of market, so not truly "affordable", and ultimately I don't think the numbers would stack up for the council in the financial DD if the 30% affordable directive were followed, or if truly "social" housing were incorporated.

There might be some residents angry enough to apply for judicial review at planning. This would be on the basis that the council has made a legal mistake, I would imagine around affordable housing, etc. I've no idea whether that would be successful. I would imagine not, but it would add further delay to planning. @Cockle43 might be able to fill in my knowledge gaps in that area!

 

[stewart]

Now the government ordered the Russian to sell Chelski as unfit to own the club ,wish they would do the same to the Rat as he is definitely unfit to own a football club.

 

[Cockle43]

There might be some residents angry enough to apply for judicial review at planning. This would be on the basis that the council has made a legal mistake, I would imagine around affordable housing, etc. I've no idea whether that would be successful. I would imagine not, but it would add further delay to planning. @Cockle43 might be able to fill in my knowledge gaps in that area!

Planning matters per se are not subject to Judicial Review (JR).

For a planning decision to become subject to a JR the litigant would have to show an error at law in the decision making by the decision maker, as you quite rightly point out; something that Local Planning Authorities rarely do.
Simply because someone doesn't like an application or the way the decision has gone does not make it available to JR; if it did the legal justice system would be absolutely log jammed more than it is already and it is currently a basket-case not fit for purpose anyway...

 

[RHB]

I may have misunderstood the excellent summary from @Medway Blue. but if I haven't, then it is now sit tight and wait, probably with a completion of some time in May. There is nothing else I can do, nor anyone else on here for that matter. Nothing is going to change the situation, not demonstrating outside Ron's House, not berating the Council or anything else, we just can't influence what is happening. This still feels like it will all come right, just not at the speed that we would like. The next pinch point will be the revised High Court visit, and the outcome of that will point to deal progress or not!

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

I find this all very hard to follow sometimes, on one hand were told that SCC are going to have to accept a bad deal to save the club, something I don't think is right but as someone who wants the club to survive, I'm ok with and then on the other hand you say that he's backed into a corner.

Now I don't want this to go on any further obviously but if RM is backed into a corner then why would SCC not want to renegotiate a better deal for themselves? Surely it can't be both can it or am I misunderstanding something?

My biggest worry now is that it sounds as though if the bits I've read are correct that the financial DD wont be complete until RM has submitted some info to them which is not one of his strong points.

Ron isn’t backed into a corner by the council: he’s backed into a corner by the people he owes £24m (which is secured on Roots Hall).

He’s now stuck between the council and his funders. His funders haven’t yet signed off on this. His debts have ballooned to an extent that they now need to extract every last penny out of it, which means ditching a lot of affordable housing the council wanted.

Expect the begging bowl to come out to the consortium and to attempt to renegotiate the deal with the consortium to get them to take on more debt. At which point I expect the consortium to threaten to walk away.

 

[Avl1983]

Ron isn’t backed into a corner by the council: he’s backed into a corner by the people he owes £24m (which is secured on Roots Hall).

He’s now stuck between the council and his funders. His funders haven’t yet signed off on this. His debts have ballooned to an extent that they now need to extract every last penny out of it, which means ditching a lot of affordable housing the council wanted.

Expect the begging bowl to come out to the consortium and to attempt to renegotiate the deal with the consortium to get them to take on more debt. At which point I expect the consortium to threaten to walk away.

Thanks Yorkshire Blue, that makes a lot of sense as well. I think I was getting confused by it all to be honest.

I just want to focus on the football and have this all behind us now same as everyone else. I just keep thinking how great it will be when this is all over but even then we don't own the stadium.

I don't think we'll really get the one big moment when it all happens like other clubs get, ours is really drawn out and painful but it'll be worth it in the end.

One step at a time!

 

[southendkid]

Now the government ordered the Russian to sell Chelski as unfit to own the club ,wish they would do the same to the Rat as he is definitely unfit to own a football club.

It wouldn't help. The government didn't technically force Abramovic to sell, they froze all of Chelsea's assets. Abramovic had to sell Chelsea to stop them going under. That tactic isn't going to work with Ron because he's already shown he'll let us go under if he doesn't get a big slice of the pie first.

 

[GBJ]

It has been intimated that the planning process will take a minimum of 9 months from the point when the plans are submitted, but I think that's best-case scenario and probably on the optimistic side.

I think that incorporates the expected call-in from the SoS, as the plans include a small parcel of land which is designated as green belt. I can't personally see the plans being rejected by the SoS on that basis, but it's a process which might add delays.

I'm not 100% sure, but negative resident feedback alone probably won't derail plans. If a lot of that negativity is around the risk that the council has taken on regarding the higher-end rents and potential difficulty in filling all the units, then the council should be able to turn around and say that the neutral market professionals that they employed to carry-out the property due diligence believe it will work, and they have the knowledge and expertise to be able to say that.

The amount of affordable housing might be an issue, as the currently slated 13-15% falls short of the council's own directive of 30%. I think the "affordable" element would have been priced at 80% of market, so not truly "affordable", and ultimately I don't think the numbers would stack up for the council in the financial DD if the 30% affordable directive were followed, or if truly "social" housing were incorporated.

There might be some residents angry enough to apply for judicial review at planning. This would be on the basis that the council has made a legal mistake, I would imagine around affordable housing, etc. I've no idea whether that would be successful. I would imagine not, but it would add further delay to planning. @Cockle43 might be able to fill in my knowledge gaps in that area!

Thanks for that mate.

So, at best, we’d be looking at next summer before the consortium could really start making big changes to RH.

 

[Medway Blue]

Thanks for that mate.

So, at best, we’d be looking at next summer before the consortium could really start making big changes to RH.

I'd say so mate, yeah. I think it'd probably be a step too far for them to invest in a large project at RH when they don't own it.

Also not sure where CBRE come into decision-making there. As significant chargeholders over the stadium and land, work there might need their approval. I don't know for sure, but wouldn't be surprised.

 

[GBJ]

I'd say so mate, yeah. I think it'd probably be a step too far for them to invest in a large project at RH when they don't own it.

Nobody could blame them for that.

It does make you wonder how this affects their 5-year plan though. Will they be forced to deviate from their original plans, or will they simply implement that 5-year plan from the moment they own RH?

I guess it’ll come down to how long they plan on hanging around for & whether they see this as a project that could keep them interested longer than the 5 years?

Also not where CBRE come into decision-making there. As significant chargeholders over the stadium and land, work there might need their approval. I don't know for sure, but wouldn't be surprised.

Yes I suppose they’d need to agree any large scale renovations/alterations (I.e. a brand new East Stand for example) although there’s absolutely no chance of that happening until the Consortium own the club, so it’s all a bit moot really

 

[Shrimpergonzo]

I suspect we won't see any significant action at Roots Hall until after the deal for the club is completed. After this I would hope/expect that they do the remedial works to get the safety certificate to return it nearer to a 10,000 capacity for next season, possibly also the "fan zone" to bring in a bit of extra revenue.

I would think the beginning part of next season will involve planning and consultation over what the future shape of Roots Hall might be - possibly even a planning application. Implementation of this will not start until after they own the freehold of the Roots Hall site (after new planning permission on Fossett's Farm) and full implementation (possibly new East Stand) if/when they get their hands on the Rat's £20million.

I have no inside knowledge at all, but that's what I would do if I were in their shoes.

All, of course, subject to the deal actually going through!

 

[tommy tucker]

Im beleve this hole thing is getting stupid . Ron wants to sell up but either cant or wont untill he gets his own way .The council wont 30% homes for rent .Ron only wants to let them have 15% .Someone has got to budge one way or other .Or the only losers will be our club .

 

[dusterman]

I think someone should do a study on the mental anguish all this has caused on so many people.