Rugby Club progress...

WoolmanT

Well-Known Forumite
Are you having a laugh? You said you can't wait for the new place, the eagerness does not marry up with merely being tenants forced to move. How long was left on your lease at the old place? You got offered some new facilities and decided they were worth more than letting Stafford keep a little tranquillity in the middle of a rapidly growing urban sprawl. You put the good of the few before the good of the many, you're selfish.

Like I said I can never support anything your club ever does going forward.

No, we are not having a laugh, merely securing the future of the rugby club and building an excellent facility that can be used by the whole community.

You would think we are ripping up Kew Gardens, whereas in fact we are moving to a few acres of pretty rough pasture land next to the west coast main line.....not sure how tranquil it is when then 10.42 from Manchester rolls on through?

Selfish? Other than a small minority on here, I've only heard support for this move and congratulations being offered from many people. Support it or not, your choice but you are always welcome to change your mind.
 

c0tt0nt0p

Well-Known Forumite
Good luck to you and the club @WoolmanT however many peoples views on the Rugby club move were crystallised following the saga of the move and the alleged double standards put in place for other sports clubs in the town (such as the Hockey club) when they wanted to make their own developments (on land they actually owned).
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
No, we are not having a laugh, merely securing the future of the rugby club and building an excellent facility that can be used by the whole community.

You would think we are ripping up Kew Gardens, whereas in fact we are moving to a few acres of pretty rough pasture land next to the west coast main line.....not sure how tranquil it is when then 10.42 from Manchester rolls on through?

Selfish? Other than a small minority on here, I've only heard support for this move and congratulations being offered from many people. Support it or not, your choice but you are always welcome to change your mind.

As the post beneath yours points out, it was the underhand way in which the rugby club received preferential treatment compared to more deserving organisations. The council acted to line lord Staffords pockets, and you directly benefited from it.
 

WoolmanT

Well-Known Forumite
Good luck to you and the club @WoolmanT however many peoples views on the Rugby club move were crystallised following the saga of the move and the alleged double standards put in place for other sports clubs in the town (such as the Hockey club) when they wanted to make their own developments (on land they actually owned).

Thanks Cottontop. I don't think the saga of the move was our fault, more to do with process and procedures not being followed correctly by the SBC planning dept.

I'm not sure its double standards with regards to the hockey / cricket club. Two separate applications, one approved correctly in my opinion and the other declined, incorrectly in my opinion. It's a shame it was declined, I hope it gets the go ahead if the HC go for it again.
 

WoolmanT

Well-Known Forumite
As the post beneath yours points out, it was the underhand way in which the rugby club received preferential treatment compared to more deserving organisations. The council acted to line lord Staffords pockets, and you directly benefited from it.

Landowners are well within their rights to apply to build on or change the use of.....the land that they own. Interested parties have the right to object - this application has been going on for years and has been approved three times and all court cases defeated. Hopefully now it's a case of getting the place built, we wish each other well and we move on.

And whether one organisation is more deserving than another is a pretty subjective point, so there's no point me making a comment either way.
 

Slainte

Quizmeister
Well you are a rugby fan/player/club member/whatever, so you are well used to strong language. Yet when it's used in conjunction with criticism of this appalling decision and one of the key players involved you come across all prissy.

Give it a rest and grow a pair eh.

Whilst WoolmanT may or may not be used to strong language, and I appreciate this is a very emotive subject, surely no need for the offensive name calling, as not all of us are.
 

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
Are you having a laugh? You said you can't wait for the new place, the eagerness does not marry up with merely being tenants forced to move. How long was left on your lease at the old place? You got offered some new facilities and decided they were worth more than letting Stafford keep a little tranquillity in the middle of a rapidly growing urban sprawl. You put the good of the few before the good of the many, you're selfish.

Like I said I can never support anything your club ever does going forward.


LOVE IT :D
 

Slainte

Quizmeister
Do you use the internet much?

Hi proactive, I do indeed, just making the point this is a public forum and whilst I appreciate all points of view on this subject, and can understand all argument points, name calling is left behind in the school yard, or so I thought
 

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
Kyoto49......lot of anger in you my friend! I am sorry for any loss of said beautiful ancient meadowland, badgers (we will aim to relocate), mature trees, hedges but as has been stated on various occasions, we have not had much choice on the location of the new site.....it's available and we need to move. In my opinion, it secures a top rate facility for generations to come......hundreds upon hundreds of kids getting off their Xboxes and running around having fun. What is wrong with that? I appreciate that the location is not to your liking but why be so offensive behind a keyboard warrior name? You hope that the place floods, geese crap everywhere and the floodlights get shot out? Such a positive outlook on life. I only wish you well.

Damn right I'm angry, and I'm not alone I can assure you, angry that an irreplaceable green oasis that has benefited Staffordians for hundreds and hundreds of years is being decimated for the wishes of a few. Your godforsaken rugby club could have been built anywhere, yet you felt the need to decimate one of the last bastians of urban wildlife in Stafford. You've negatively affected the urban environement for every Staffordian, yet will benefit a pathetic percentage of the residents. You should get your head out of your ar*e long enough to see that what you have done is selfish in the extreme. You've prioritised the wishes of the minority over the greater good of our town. I've no qualms with provideing sport for kids, but your reason for chosing this location is all about profit, and nothing about any of your other goals which could be achieved on any field. Raising plenty of money from wedding receptions will you when you have a lovely scenic backdrop......... :(
 

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
Thanks Resident. I can assure you that of the boxes above, the only one I tick is rugby enthusiast......Republican / UKIP, couldn't be further away from where I'm at. Give rugby a try, you may like it!

I also hope that I'm right re the traffic.....if we are wrong, as neighbours, we meet, we discuss and work towards a solution.....we don't want to be bad neighbours.

You have no clue how many of your precious kids/adults will be accessing the site by bike/car, that's been highlighted on the official planning reports. And I guarantee all local residents that once the club has been built you won't give a t*ss about who parks in the local streets. The clubs response to all complaints will be that the members are legally entitled to park on any public road. Residents be damned and make my words :(
 

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
No, we are not having a laugh, merely securing the future of the rugby club and building an excellent facility that can be used by the whole community.

You would think we are ripping up Kew Gardens, whereas in fact we are moving to a few acres of pretty rough pasture land next to the west coast main line.....not sure how tranquil it is when then 10.42 from Manchester rolls on through?

Selfish? Other than a small minority on here, I've only heard support for this move and congratulations being offered from many people. Support it or not, your choice but you are always welcome to change your mind.

You forgot to mention the pesticide's you'll be polluting the local water courses with, the loss of hundreds of yards of mature nature nurturing hedges, the ancient Oaks you'll be chopping down, some of which are homes to Owls and Buzzards, not to mention the Badgers, amphibians, and all sorts of other wonderful wildlife that you'll be destroying. That's before we get on to the fence that will prevent the wildlife returning once your decimated the whole area. What happens to the foxes who hunt their on a daily basis for example? You're wiping a whole chain of life from the planet for that area. I hope you're very proud.

What you fail to 'get' T Woolman, is that it's the kids who you claim to be helping that are suffering the most from this folly. These fields are irreplaceable to the kids, whereas your rugby club is most certainly replaceable given that you ae ecurrently about to do just that. Had you have worked harder to maintain the trees, the hedges, no floodlights and no friggin big fence around the whole area, you might have received a little more sympathy for your destruction. Staffordshire Wildlife Trust saw right through your plans..........

Remind me why you needed that fence again? To keep out the locals angry at such disregard for their open spaces was it?? I can thnk of no other valid reason

I've walked that field for over 30 years, and if you think all you are destroying is a few acres of pretty rough pasture land you're more deluded than I thought. I feel sorry for you having so little understanding of how important our green spaces and the benefit they give to all. I feel more sorry for the majority of kids in Stafford who are losing such a valuable green space for the benefit of a few.
 

markpa12003

Well-Known Forumite
I feel a little sorry for WoolmanT / stafford rugby club. He can't be held accountable for sbc allocating part of the former rugby land for a housing allocation and, therefore, making them homeless. He also can't be blamed because the landowner (lord stafford) wants to sell his land to a developer to make him even richer. I also don't see how WoolmanT can be blamed for the underhand / devious / corrupt / incomprehensible decision by sbc to refuse the hockey club application.

I don't like the new location of the rugby club. However, the site is available, suitable and deliverable etc and I know from 1st hand experience how useless sbc are in assisting existing sports club relocate. I've held meetings with sbc about relocating a very succesful sports club to beaconside and was basically told to f*ck off, as such whilst I believe beaconside could have been a fantastic sports complex for a number of sports, as well as a great community asset, our council are too stupid / incompetent to make this a reality.

People's anger should be directed towards Adam Hill; Ted Manders and sbc.
 

WoolmanT

Well-Known Forumite
Damn right I'm angry, and I'm not alone I can assure you, angry that an irreplaceable green oasis that has benefited Staffordians for hundreds and hundreds of years is being decimated for the wishes of a few. Your godforsaken rugby club could have been built anywhere, yet you felt the need to decimate one of the last bastians of urban wildlife in Stafford. You've negatively affected the urban environement for every Staffordian, yet will benefit a pathetic percentage of the residents. You should get your head out of your ar*e long enough to see that what you have done is selfish in the extreme. You've prioritised the wishes of the minority over the greater good of our town. I've no qualms with provideing sport for kids, but your reason for chosing this location is all about profit, and nothing about any of your other goals which could be achieved on any field. Raising plenty of money from wedding receptions will you when you have a lovely scenic backdrop......... :(

Oh I can see you are angry.....maybe if we weren't concerned about angry new neighbours, there would be no need for a fence......chicken, egg come to mind?

No the rugby club could not have been built anywhere. 100% wrong. We don't own our current site and we won't own the new one. Additionally we don't have the funds to acquire land, level pitches, build a club house etc.

I have walked my dogs on the site on numerous occasions......I am as yet to see all the children you mention, must be a huge (and very successful) game of hide & seek going on.

I don't have my head up my a*se thank you, I've always wondered why people say that as it's probably physically impossible. Oh well....
 

gilbert grape

Well-Known Forumite
One person owns the land they are moving from, and onto. If it were otherwise, I think the whole approach would be different. However, we are where we are and it's been managed piss poorly.
Residents have spoken and not been listened to, as have lovers of wildlife and nature. I actually qualify as both and, as a sports fan, I would like to Stafford Rugby to prosper but I really believe this is the wrong move due to scale and proximity. A flood every few years will be enough to ruin the club. People are quite naïve to think it just jas to be wiped out by water to cause trouble. The number of games due to a waterlogged pitch is something that people won't consider and the water table rising will probably see to that.
As people may know, my great love is local football and if Rangers tried to push through a move that was so unpopular I wouldn't give it my blessing. I sat in the planning chambers a year ago and we had to speak up to get a simple stand pushed through for planning permission. I'm amazed at how this project has been literally bulldozed through!
 

WoolmanT

Well-Known Forumite
You forgot to mention the pesticide's you'll be polluting the local water courses with, the loss of hundreds of yards of mature nature nurturing hedges, the ancient Oaks you'll be chopping down, some of which are homes to Owls and Buzzards, not to mention the Badgers, amphibians, and all sorts of other wonderful wildlife that you'll be destroying. That's before we get on to the fence that will prevent the wildlife returning once your decimated the whole area. What happens to the foxes who hunt their on a daily basis for example? You're wiping a whole chain of life from the planet for that area. I hope you're very proud.

What you fail to 'get' T Woolman, is that it's the kids who you claim to be helping that are suffering the most from this folly. These fields are irreplaceable to the kids, whereas your rugby club is most certainly replaceable given that you ae ecurrently about to do just that. Had you have worked harder to maintain the trees, the hedges, no floodlights and no friggin big fence around the whole area, you might have received a little more sympathy for your destruction. Staffordshire Wildlife Trust saw right through your plans..........

Remind me why you needed that fence again? To keep out the locals angry at such disregard for their open spaces was it?? I can thnk of no other valid reason

I've walked that field for over 30 years, and if you think all you are destroying is a few acres of pretty rough pasture land you're more deluded than I thought. I feel sorry for you having so little understanding of how important our green spaces and the benefit they give to all. I feel more sorry for the majority of kids in Stafford who are losing such a valuable green space for the benefit of a few.

I am not deluded, I do get it, there's no need to feel sorry for me.....I sleep easily at night. I am or will be proud of the excellent community sports facility when it is built.....which will see hundreds of children running around, playing every Sunday.

Are you angry with all the houses being built in the area, wind turbines going up, the ever expanding business parks at the north of the town, increased development of the MOD camp......or do you just reserve your anger for a sports club being relocated by its landlord?

I appreciate that a number of people are against the site, yourself included but do you not think that there are a lot of people that strongly support it?
 

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
Oh I can see you are angry.....maybe if we weren't concerned about angry new neighbours, there would be no need for a fence......chicken, egg come to mind?

No the rugby club could not have been built anywhere. 100% wrong. We don't own our current site and we won't own the new one. Additionally we don't have the funds to acquire land, level pitches, build a club house etc.

I have walked my dogs on the site on numerous occasions......I am as yet to see all the children you mention, must be a huge (and very successful) game of hide & seek going on.

I don't have my head up my a*se thank you, I've always wondered why people say that as it's probably physically impossible. Oh well....


Er, I'm not a neighbour! And your fence was always in your plans so don't try and lie and say it is because you have angry neighbours. You only gained angry neighbours through your disregard for anyone or anything other than yourselves.........

I assume you're being deliberately obtuse?? Kids don't need to actually be on the site to benefit. The betterment of our natural world benefits us all directly and indirectly. Having said that maybe you should open your eyes, as I've seen kids regulalry building dens in those hedges and playing in those fields over the long summer holidays.........

Nice that you fail to answer my other statements and questions. I can only take your silence as vindication that I'm correct.
 
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