Not good news

[Graham C]

Agree totally with Warren and BFR.........this is one South Bucks resident who will not be voting for Mr Grieve any more.Rob Anderson's comment about "uninformed government intervention" makes me feel that the council should give them the story as soon as possible as the club will have no chance of fighting this without considerable backing and I hope the Slough MP will assist in this and maybe Alan Johnson as a senior parliamentarian with long connections to the area.

I seem to recall that this is not the first time that a faith based group has hit our hopes and as Warren says our emphasis on a wide community project should have real validity.

 

A petition from Stoke Poges villagers only amounting to 2500 signatures seems quite small compared to the benefit that the proposed stadium (AND HOUSING) would bring to this area and now that we have a council that seems to support the club(unlike yesteryear) it must be hoped that the fight starts now...........sadly whatever the outcome, it looks like any new ground is further away than ever and the situation could easily breed pessimism in terms of the future of the club-I hope also that we get a clear statement from the club on how they propose to address this setback.

 

Otherwise.................who do we want to merge with............................................................?

[Windsor Rebel]

I have just read this (on-line) article and feel absolutely gutted about this. You have to feel for the likes of Steve Easterbrook

and all involved in the project. What galls me is that in the letter from Mary Pooley (Free Schools Group) she nowhere

mentions the work done already by the Arbour Vale project, she just assumes she can come in and take the land

for a school. Agree with Graham C. The fight starts now.

[richierebel]

It seems that there is a sikh school earmarked for Stoke Poges but this article doesn`t seem to me to be on the same plot we are after, so why would they want two sikh schools so close together, well 3 if you count the one on Wexham Road? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2293736/Racist-graffiti-daubed-sign-UKs-richest-communities-villagers-fighting-planned-Sikh-school.html

[Edinburgh Rebel]

Not a big fan of separating kids at school by religion. I think it only teaches divisions and it is far healthier if everyone mixes together from a young age.

 

Very bad news about the ground. Hope it can be worked out somehow. Still seems incredible that there's been a ground in Slough sitting unused for years (Wexham Park) but I won't go into that since it doesn't seem to be a popular topic.

Edited March 15, 2013 by Stanley

[Windsor Rebel]

It seems that there is a sikh school earmarked for Stoke Poges but this article doesn`t seem to me to be on the same plot we are after, so why would they want two sikh schools so close together, well 3 if you count the one on Wexham Road? http://www.dailymail...ikh-school.html

 

The residents of Stoke Poges didnt want it there and organised a petition against it.

[Martin]

I've applied for an online e-petition through the government website asking that central government stop interfering with this issue. It needs to be reviewed and approved which can take up to a week but may be quicker and once it is approved I will post a link here, on twitter, facebook etc and we then need to circulate it and collect as many signatures as possible.

[Graham C]

Good move----hope we can get more than 2500.............I bet many of the wider non league community would support it

[Kaiser Gibbs Batman (KGB)]

The local South Bucks newspaper report of a public meeting in Stoke Poges about the proposed free school includes the paragraph, "There was also anger at the decision to choose a South Bucks site when there are approximately 25 other vacant sites in Slough large enough to house the 850 students and 150 staff of the new academy."

 

If that really is the case, then one wonders why DFE has jumped in apparently so heavy handedly over the Arbour Vale site. While the legislation may give DFE powers to compel SBC to make that site available to the school, its exercise of them must be "reasonable". So, if the situation really is as claimed by the residents of Stoke Poges, it would appear to be open to SBC, by way of response,to suggest/offer an alternative site for the free school.

[A Rebel and a Saint]

The council have responded on twitter (re tweeted by our own twitter page) and it looks like they are going to back us in the fight for the site. Excellent news, hopefully they can follow through.

[Manor Park Rebel]

I know the word 'discrimination' should be used with caution but I believe the football club has been discriminated against since leaving Wexham Park. It seems to me that the process of finding a new site for the club in the town has been doomed from the start because, being rightly open to all, it apparently cannot be deemed to be contributing to 'cultural diversity'. Unless those responsible for the future of the club can find a way to link a new football ground with some kind of facility to attract those from a minority group of some kind, I think we could be witnessing the final death throes of Slough Town Football Club. What a great shame this would be when so much dedicated effort has been put into the planning work in recent years. If this current proposal for the Arbour Vale site falls by the wayside I really can't see how it would ever be sensible to attempt to repeat the experience when it can be so easy for someone to pop up and pull the rug out at the eleventh hour. Perhaps we should keep a close watch on other development sites around the town so we can just step in at the last minute and claim one for ourselves!

[Burnham Lad]

Apologies if you have seen it, but this may give some background on the school : http://www.khalsasecondaryschool.com/news.html

 

Particularly see the letter to Stoke Poges Residents which mentions Arbour Vale and also touches on the objections that SP residents have expressed:

 

http://www.khalsasecondaryschool.com/pdf/stokepoges_residents_feb2013.pdf

 

Hope you can resolve the ground issues.

 

BL

[Burnham Lad]

First link went wrong - should be: http://www.khalsasecondaryschool.com/news.html

 

BL

[Irishadrian]

You do have to wonder just how interested Paradigm really are Its more than a year now since the consultations took place and they promised on the website www.arbourpark.com that the results would be published asap A year later Nothing??

[Sir Rebel1965]

The club in one form or another has been representing the town of Slough for 123 years and is just being swept under the carpet again. A new selective school pops up and gets priority.

 

Action needs to be taken to stop the true local organisation, the club, who have loyally represented the town, being pushed aside by a school with no links to the town and who will bus in a large number of their pupils and have no affiliation to the local community.

 

It is now clear that the councils lack of motivation to progress the Arbour Vale project has led to this situation and the club should have been up and playing in the ground by now if the council had ever been serious about the scheme.

 

The club has been stabbed in the back yet again, and those who have blood on their hands know who they are.

Edited March 15, 2013 by Clive T

[Martin]

It's central government that has put the mockers on the plans Clive.

[Sir Rebel1965]

Martin

 

If the council had not slowed the process down we would have been either building or already in and playing and then the site would no longer have been available, however we know which two MP's got together and offered this as a solution taking advantage of the councils slowing tactics.

[Martin]

I am not sure the council have slowed anything. My understanding is that the complexities of the site and the involvement of Holy Joes has impacted

[Sir Rebel1965]

Richard Stokes involvment in the early days of locating a site did not speed things up.

[Martin]

True Clive, but that was a long time ago (and yes I appreciate that is the point you are making) but the one thing we've got going for us at the moment is that the ruling council do support us and actively want to help.

[GarySTFC]

And I do think we learnt a lesson from that experience to take politics out of the agreement and have the support from all councillors of all parties, something which is a lot better this time around. Would be great to get some positive, conclusive news on this recent development soon.

 

And well done to the club for getting something online so quickly.