Thetownend.com

Chairman wants to get County Ground revamp up and running
           

  ANDREW Fitton is keen to start the wheels turning on the County Ground redevelopment as soon as possible, but insists that will only happen with the
  support of Swindon Borough Council.

           

http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/news/headlines/8422225.Chairman_wants_to_get_County_Ground_revamp_up_and_running/?ref=rss
           

Like the look of this...even the Don Rogers is getting a facelift.

Support of the Council?

We're fucked then!

i think we have alot to look forward to.
the one thing i'd like to see is a decent supporters-social club within the complex.

I think this time the Council will come under seriuos pressure if they don't come up trumps. I don't think anyone thought the plans in Mr Whippy's head were ever going to be extracted so couldn't get too excited by a pipedream.
The Council are hardly covering themselves in glory and a £20m investment is bloody big given the recession and particularly when they're fucking up the regeneration plans for the Town Centre.

Like a modern day Rendevouz.

a club open 7 days a week. a social club and ran that way.quiz nights,a sunday league team,pool,darts,etc,etc.
other clubs have them.see no reason why we can't.

Maybe the ground should be moved to the High street club  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

being serious if AF wants support from the council then i do not think the ground will be revamped via the current plans as SBC has never helped

What current plans?

I meant the plans that we have yet to see

Why? I'm pretty sure Fitton will have had some informal dialogue with the council already, you're being a bit presumptuous. What do you suggest then, moving outside Swindon so we don't have to go to them for planning permission?

Completely different board now though isn't it. This board have done more for the town than the old lot ever did

So you think that SBC will reject plans that neither you nor they have seen yet! Have you been doing seances with normy?

FFS, how many times?

Maybe the reason the council have been unhelpful in the past is because they've never had plans put in front of them that have not been:
a) insane
b) unlawful

As a council taxpayer myself, I'd have been fuming if the council had got into bed with a scheme cooked up by Diamond Mike and Baghdad Bob, as it would have been of little or no benefit to either the club or the town, although I'm sure Mr D would have seen a decent return on those shares he bought "for a laugh" out of it. Look what happened to Pox with Kassam, would you have wanted that to be the outcome of a more "cooperative" council in the past?

....that also lets away fans in on match days.

I wonder how much income we lose by making the legends 'home only'

I'd just put a wall around it to create the illusion its a new ground.

It's rammed every game at the moment so not much would be my guess

a matchday bar-lounge could go hand in hand with a social club.it could be used for events such as weddings,parties etc as the legends is now.the other as i described earlier.
make it a members club with promotions etc,and i think it would work.

Not outside of Swindon no

Quite often in recent times there have been queues, with people unable to get in, so I'd actually go a bit further and say they are minting it at the moment.

It'll be interesting to see who owns the ground if it all goes ahead. £20M is a lot of money but surely won't include sale of the current footprint at commercial rates?

So what is your 'magic' suggestion then?

We should build a floating stadium in the sky

good idea, we'd have the rest of the football league complaining the 'ball behaves different because it's at altitude...'

 The fact that SBC will need to be majorly involved in this, probably means it will never happen.

You keep saying this, with little or bugger all to back it up. You're our very own miserabilist tendency

That's what a century and a half of watching STFC does to you.  Let Reg be a lesson to us.  We'll all be like this one day.

Well at least the current administration at SBC got a main library built, after various Labour council leaders promised, but never delivered over 20 odd years.

FFS you're as bad as Reg. He turns every thread into a cross between "Down Our Way" and a promotion drive for the Samaritans, you try and turn every thread into a party political for the Tories.

You should be thankful that I didn't mention how wonderful SBC have done over the Mechanics. That would've sent Reg over the edge !!!

At the end of the day, I think we all would like a positive outcome with meetings with SBC over a possible development of the CG...and work on it starting in the next year. We're more likely to get it done now with our current board, than ever before.

True dat.

Don't lump me in with Tory boy....and don't presume you're always right.

SBC has a long and undistinguished history of fucking up the cultural heritage of our Town....the last time there was any sincere interest in the FC from SBC was back in the days of David Murray John, who in his patrician way, genuinely believed a strong local FC would be good for the plebs of the Town.  Such was his enthusiasm, we got a new stand out of them.  He was a Huddersfield fan.

I can't help but think that with the time scales Fitton mentioned, maybe starting work at the end of the season, that the re-development isn't going to be that major. Sure, new (or updated) stands all round but most likely in a similar footprint to the current stands. If it was anything bigger it wouldn't stand a chance of getting planning permission that quickly would it?

I don't. But I do presume you're always a miserable old sod

See this is what your argument boils down to every time - "Oooh, mark my words, nowt good will come of it, nobbut trouble that council, EEehh I remember back in the 20s, just after General Strike it were, buggers kicked us all out into streets and stole our undergarments". It's not an argument, it's geriatric anecdote mixed with "Now then young'un" finger wagging.

If you're looking for a long and undistinguished history of fucking up ground redevelopment plans, the club are far better candidates than the council. We now have a club board the council can actually deal with, let's maybe see what happens this time before we pull on the sackcloth and ashes eh?

I think Fitton said as much in the article, that it would be highly unlikely to go through that quickly. So I don't think that's the timescales they're expecting, just that's how quickly it could start if everyone pulls their fingers out

If we wanted to build say a new TE then the planning app would go in like any other, as happened with the Intel and Stratton Bank in the 90's....ie nothing to do with SBC other than in their role of planning authority.

Fitton's words seem to suggest they're looking for something from SBC above and beyond this.

Very true. I expect they'll be little things popping up that halt the process for a while. I think it's important the club and the fans and SBC are all patient with the plans.

Through all the development plans I've said given that STFC and SBC are two of the more incompetent organisations in the Town, maybe we should wait and see what happens before spunking our collective loads.

Now we've just got the one, progress true, and if you want to crack one out because of that feel free....it'll be interesting  to see the outcome,( not in the jizz analogy though)

No-one's "cracking one out", just suggesting that the Cassandra act is a little premature

I tend to agree with Reg on this one...many older fans will never come back on account of in there younger days there hopes were dashed on many ocasions.
We had one of the best teams in the country in the late sixties....yes the whole country and when the time came for that final push from the board it never come....in fact instead of a  progresive club we carried on selling our stars............and remember these were the days we were the best supported team in the division by miles.
So from a great future in 67/8/9 by 1972 we were on the downward again and a big white Elephant called the North Stand.....i mean who builds one fuck off stand and leaves the other three looking like relics from the past......You name em...Summerbee,Hunt,Noble,Rogers,Eastoe, Rideout,.....big big fees we got for them and what did we get in return.
The board said the sale of Rogers financed the North Stand.....it didnt...a whacking great loan did that we in fact have just recently paid off.
So its great that the younger fans have optimism...its great that there does indeed seem to be a glint of light at the end of the tunnel because as Reg says for the older fans its been a long dark tunnel...........and many older fans myself included(not that old though!)will believe it when we see it...too  many times we have hoped for a brighter future and many times the hopes have been dashed.
Deep down Reg and co want what we want.....but for some seeing is believing.

I am!

To be honest even the last decade was enough to make even the younger fans such as myself cautious. We all know what happened with the front garden and Shaw Tip. And of course the ill fated pathetic redevelopment plans from the old board. What concerns me this time around though isn't the nimbys or the great crested newt. It's just SBC. I think it's a hurdle that we can overcome now Fitton and Co are in charge. Until it's approved though i'll stay on the cautious side.

Not forgeting the promotion party v Sunderland.............to be dashed by a crooked board.
The punishment was harsh granted.

Point is tho leefer, all the examples you give are from duff boards. Which I've been arguing has been where the problem lies. Whereas Reg is doing his usual Eeyore "We're all doomed" act on the basis that the council will fuck it up this time. And I'm suggesting he has little to base that on other than an inexhaustible supply of pessimism and decades-old anecdotes

I think we're all (well mostly) approaching it with some degree of caution (I'm happy to admit to cautious optimism) but there's caution and completely unwarranted doom-mongering. Whenever the subject of a ground redev comes up Reg just trots out the "Won't happen. Council will fuck it up" line, like a cracked bloody record. And then some anecdote about how crap so and so was at such and such in the fucking 70s. It's just miserabilism for the sake of it

Point taken Paul..........but as you say decades it was. >:(


Fact is Paul the future looks bright but you cannot blame some for being wary.

It will never happen, something will get fucked up. At best before things go too far, but at worse half way through development leaving us without a ground. Typical Swindon.

Probably best not to risk it.

...i mean who builds one fuck off stand and leaves the other three looking like relics from the past...[/quote]

Crewe?

lets leave the revamp & spend the 20 million on a decent striker to partner charlie :girlgiggle:

I think we get your point....no need to drone on and on just to prove your rightness.

You're cautiously optimistic, I'm cautiously pessimistic.....let's wait and see.

I rest my case.

has there been any mention at all on when we will get some visuals of the plans? they can't be too far off given the amount of detail that's been given so far

Sounds like the club want to go to the council first before showing the plans to the public. Seems a sensible idea to be honest.

Pot, meet kettle

This is precisely why I think if it'll ever happen then now is the time.

Luckily we no longer have a bunch of cowboys running the show and they've been fairly upfront and have good dialogue with the Council as far as I'm aware. The fact Fitton says we could get on with it pretty quickly may entice the Council even more.

i think justin tomlinson could play an important part in this.
although i hate the party he represents,i am optomistic he will see us alright regarding co-operation in moving forward.

What's his role in all this then? Genuinly don't know

He hasn't got a role in the council any more, he is MP for North Swindon. He was the cabinet member for Sport, Recreation and Keeping the Ladies of Manchester Road Free of STDs but no longer.

Presumably he can use his 'influence' (sic) with the similar party'd councillors and soothe a few ruffled feathers for those with long memories.

Tomlinson isn't on SBC and the CG isn't in his constituency....not sure there's much he can do, even if he wanted. Reading between the lines of Fitton's statement, it sounds as if this is the first round of some politicking with a small p.