Beaconside sports centre

[Wormella]

Well a Tesco is better than nothing, at least it's not yet another Co-op.

Looks like there is space, and planning permission - just no one biting at it - http://www.beaconbusinesspark.co.uk/index.html

 

[Dreamies]

i want to build my own swimming pool and set up my own swim school

 

[1JKz]

Each time I go, the gym and pitches are fairly busy, enough to warrant them to be saved and kept, for what they're being used for.

I'm still a little taken back on how this plot and the "plan" for it, is a massive kick in the teeth for Stafford, you know, those that pay the taxes!

Anyone dare calculate how high we're being shat on?

Can no one, give me hope?

 

[SCHC]

Wonder if SBC at any point had the chance to acquire the sports pitches, gym building and astro pitches?

If they were, one wonders what the reason would have been to decline the offer? Can anyone find out?

 

[gilesjuk]

I'm sure Chinese boarding school kids will want the place to themselves.

 

[1JKz]

Wonder if SBC at any point had the chance to acquire the sports pitches, gym building and astro pitches?

If they were, one wonders what the reason would have been to decline the offer? Can anyone find out?

Of course they would have done, cost cutting exercises would have told them not to bail the place out, in the long run everyone that mattered would have benefited from this place.

The councils in this country should be the best landlords and have the best businesses minds, in the world.
It's painful to watch.

 

[1JKz]

From JL;

Thank you for your email.

A Chinese investor is indeed buying the Beaconside site, including the Sports Centre. I welcome the fact that the whole site is being bought for educational purposes. The original plan was for housing which I opposed.

I have already said to the University that I want to see the Sports Centre remain and open for public use. I will also take this up with the investors as soon as I have the opportunity. I fully appreciate the existing shortage of sports facilities in Stafford - so losing the Beaconside centre would make matters worse.

Thank you for your support for the sports centre. Several others have written to me and that gives more force to the arguments I will make.

With best wishes,
Jeremy Lefroy
Member of Parliament for Stafford constituency

 

[1JKz]

When did investment (and development), become another word for bullshit?

 

[proactive]

When did investment (and development), become another word for bullshit?

Every single time any politician opens their mouth.

 

[gilesjuk]

Wouldn't be surprised if they built houses on some of the land. What people say when buying land and what they do after are quite different.

 

[1JKz]

Is there really anything we can do to stop it?

 

[markpa12003]

If the sports complex at Beaconside is lost then the BC are completely culpable. I had meetings with the Council approximately 2 years ago about a proposal which would have safeguarded and improved the existing facilities. The arrogance of SBC was staggering.

They were so sure that they could protect the sports facility at Beaconside despite it not being protected in the Local Plan and having no plan as to how they were going to do it. Incompetent.

 

[PPPPPP]

If the sports complex at Beaconside is lost then the BC are completely culpable. I had meetings with the Council approximately 2 years ago about a proposal which would have safeguarded and improved the existing facilities. The arrogance of SBC was staggering.

They were so sure that they could protect the sports facility at Beaconside despite it not being protected in the Local Plan and having no plan as to how they were going to do it. Incompetent.

Worse than incompetent. It was reported in the press(and possibly the Newsletter) that MP Lefroy had written to this mystery buyer about the sports facilities. Wouldn't be surprised if the deal falls through.

 

[1JKz]

I hope the deal* falls through.
Then someone who's head is screwed fast tight, can arrange to get it sorted short term and long term for the benefit of everyone Staffordian!

*I understand it as this; gym closes end of July, the gym building is emptied (where's all the stuff inside go?) by November, the investment comes Jan'17 and to be up and running (whatever that may be) early next year. ...just in time for the pitches to be padlocked, to be used for who knows what?!

As history has shown, this will of course not be the case.

 

[1JKz]

If the sports complex at Beaconside is lost then the BC are completely culpable. I had meetings with the Council approximately 2 years ago about a proposal which would have safeguarded and improved the existing facilities. The arrogance of SBC was staggering.

They were so sure that they could protect the sports facility at Beaconside despite it not being protected in the Local Plan and having no plan as to how they were going to do it. Incompetent.

Thanks for trying though, eh.

Also, you say if, whatdya know?

 

[PPPPPP]

Bor Council meetings to select new CEO and planning head this week. What are the chances of getting someone who's not an insider? Less than zero? probably.

 

[markpa12003]

Thanks for trying though, eh.

Also, you say if, whatdya know?

I don't know any more than you do now. A number of high level meetings were held a couple of years but as a result of the reaction we received the discussions did not continue. Im sure if i had the same discussions with other authorities we would have been able to do something great for stafford.

 

[1JKz]

I don't know any more than you do now. A number of high level meetings were held a couple of years but as a result of the reaction we received the discussions did not continue. Im sure if i had the same discussions with other authorities we would have been able to do something great for stafford.

Too late to do anything now?

Have you sent a grumble out to anyone "important" that can make a change or anyone you know (that isn't braindead!), that could do anything from here on in, or anyone that could discuss it further with the investors*?


*I hate using that word.

 

[PPPPPP]

Where else would a council be dedicated to moving a rugby club that already has good facilities, at a cost of about three quarters of a million quid, while abandoning all the other sports?

 

[1JKz]

WTaF is going on here!!

The idea that this (the Beaconside facility) wasn't a forced consideration and then a forced act to deploy, in the plan to have the rugby club where it would have sat more comfortably in it's surroundings, is an act of, well, erm, an act of connivance.

I'll just carry on paying my taxes like a good little boy.