Berkhamsted Comrades

[JamesG]

On 10/10/2021 at 00:14, Rhodes said:

why on earth would they over turn their very own Town Council's unanimous decision to award Broadwater 'Asset of Community Value' (ACV)

That's very simple. Because the ACV did not meet the legal criteria for a successful application. 

[Rhodes]

JamesG - Thanks and welcome to the Forum. In what way did the Asset of Community Value (ACV) not meet the legal criteria out of interest, I can't imagine that Berkhamsted FC Chairman Steve Davis allowed that to happen. Also if the ACV didn't meet the legal requirement why did Berkhamsted Town Council happily and unanimously nod it through at their meeting on Thursday 19 August as presumably their legal department would have looked it over beforehand.

[Rhodes]

On 04/07/2021 at 14:29, Arsenal fan said:

Latest news on the save Broadwater battle.

Update – the latest in Berkhamsted FC’s fight to ... (propertyinvestortoday.co.uk) 

It has all gone quiet on the Broadwater front hasn't it and James G never came back again to post, I wonder why. The follow up article from Property Investor Today that Arsenal Fan posted in July last year was interesting and it would appear that the Berkhamsted Sports Ground Charitable Association Limited (BSGCA) are not all they seem to be and certainly don't have the best interests of the the citizens of Berkhamsted at heart.

“The Board of the BSGCA are out of touch with the local community. The sports ground was paid for by benefactors and subscription by the people of Berkhamsted in 1924 for sport to be played on a permanent basis.”

[Rhodes]

What is the situation now at Broadwater out of interest, have the likes of Paul Forster, 'independent' Chair of the Berkhamsted Sports Ground Charitable Association Limited (BSGCA), Howard Wells, Chair of the Dacorum Sports Network and Keith Pollard, Chairman of Berkhamsted Raiders gone away quietly with their tails firmly between their legs, taking unscrupulous Sussex based developers Thakeham with them, or is the fight to 'criminally' move the Club away from its spiritual home still ongoing:

[Rhodes]

Sorry to quote the oId footbaII song but 'its aII gone quiet over there' hasn't it, have the Berkhamsted Sports Ground Charitable Association Limited (BSGCA), Dacorum Sports Network, Berkhamsted Raiders and unscrupulous Sussex based developers Thakeham given up on puIIing the rug from under Berkhamsted at Broadwater, we haven't heard anything for some time. 

[Rhodes]

An extract, relating to Broadwater, from the Consultation to the draft Dacorum Local Plan (2020-2038) - Emerging Strategy for Growth Consultation, it says it all doesn't it. I hope the likes of Paul Forster, 'independent' Chair of the Berkhamsted Sports Ground Charitable Association Limited (BSGCA), Howard Wells, Chair of the Dacorum Sports Network, Keith Pollard, Chairman of Berkhamsted Raiders and unscrupulous Sussex based developers Thakeham have all scrutinised it:

BERKHAMSTED FOOTBALL CLUB (ID: 1269348)

PDF

Proposal & Sites Berkhamsted Other Sites

Yes

We write in response to section 23.1 the Berkhamsted delivery part of the Dacorum draft local plan.

Executive summary

1. Dacorum Borough Council should lobby for a lower housing figure for Dacorum and preserve more of the Green Belt.
2. The new housing figures for Berkhamsted should be a lower proportion of Dacorum’s total.
3. The draft local plan is superior to the Thakeham/BSGCA proposal.
4. There is no case for taking away existing sports facilities like Broadwater football ground and replacing it with housing. We have a 3,700 strong petition on that point, and attach 83 pages of relevant comments made by petitioners.
5. Why it is not necessary to put housing on Broadwater to obtain additional sports facilities.
6. Artificial football pitches and Berkhamsted.
7. Youth football pitches and Berkhamsted.

 

1. Dacorum’s housing figures

The number of new houses assumed in the draft plan should be revised downwards to reflect:

-population trends

1.3 million people have left the UK in the last year;

Brexit, and the new points- based immigration system;

Excess deaths through covid.

-Covid and work patterns

Covid may have permanently altered behaviour with regards to online working and shopping. Destroying green belt makes less sense if former shops and offices as a result become available for housing.

There will be a cut in commuting to London, in which case again Dacorum does not need the level of housing assumed in the current target.

-housing policy

the current government is altering the housing target algorithm;

the possibility of different governments in future years.

2. New housing numbers for Berkhamsted should be a lower proportion of Dacorum’s total.

The covid related long term fall in commuting will have a bigger effect on Berkhamsted than Hemel or Tring, so its share of housing in Dacorum should now be reduced. Berkhamsted really is a commuter town and has grown around a town centre station, even having to make its station car park multi-story. In contrast, the other two big settlements of Hemel and Tring have remote stations.

3. The draft local plan is superior to the Thakeham/BSGCA proposal.

Those that care about the environment do not want 200 acres of Green Belt land to be lost for ever and permanently turned into a Thakeham housing estate.  to be virtually joined for ever. Erosion of the green belt and the coalescence of the three distinct communities of Berkhamsted, Bourne End and Hemel, does not fit with the local plan's current policy of housing provision by smaller builds around existing settlements.

There are sound planning reasons to keep separate the two settlements of Berkhamsted and Bourne End. Reality is the separation will not be maintained by the insertion of a strip of a mere couple of hundred yards of sports pitches. Thakeham’s claims cannot be taken seriously that sports are located in order to maintain green space between Berkhamsted and Bourne End, so the two settlements retain their individual identities and a permanent green gap can be retained in perpetuity.

Thakeham have chosen the wrong organisation to receive the pitches. Giving them to the Berkhamsted Sports Ground Charitable Association Limited (BSGCA) will not keep them green in perpetuity. That is the mistake the Berko inhabitants made in 1924. Remember the BSGCA now want housing on the Broadwater football pitch.

A particular feature of the Thakeham proposal is that it is inflexible to housing demand. Either the whole Bulbourne Cross development takes place or none of it. As they claim to be infrastructure led, Thakeham need to get all (not just part) of their Bulbourne Cross estate built to pay for the infrastructure.

The current draft local plan for housing is more sensible and flexible, by not having lots of eggs in one basket. Not all of the sites identified in the south and west of Berkhamsted need to become housing. The housing tap can be turned on or off according to population needs, if housing demand is cut, as discussed above.

That is just part of why the Thakeham/BSGCA scheme is not in the draft Dacorum Plan. The planning experts and elected councillors of Dacorum produced a plan for extra housing in the south and west of the town-not towards Bourne End. The developers shotgun wedding with the BSGCA ought not to make Dacorum change its mind.

Keeping countryside is important. Land to the west of Berkhamsted on the northern side of the main road is countryside. It is not green behaviour to try and turn into a country theme park Thakeham style.

According to the Electoral Commission's website Thakeham Homes Ltd made cash donations totalling £445,700 to the Conservative Party between  May 2017 and May 2020. We hope that will not influence the Conservative Party run Dacorum Council.

4. There is no case for taking away existing sports facilities like Broadwater football ground and replacing it with housing. We attach a 3,700 strong petition on that point, with relevant comments made by petitioners.

You may be puzzled as to why Broadwater comes up in as an issue in the draft local plan, when it is not shown as a housing site and nor is it a coloured as a housing site in Thakeham’s leaflet. Either plan would allow Berkhamsted to meet its target housing numbers, without building on Broadwater.

The only connection is the Broadwater stadium freeholder, the BSGCA, wants to cash in on the potential housing value of the land. The BSGCA say this is to fund the construction of sports buildings at Bourne End on the land that Thakeham may donate (as well as terrace it, put in drainage, a road and 400 car park spaces). Berkhamsted Lawn Tennis & Squash Rackets Club reveals that the BSGCA will also have a legacy fund with the rest of any Broadwater sale proceeds.

If additional housing means Berkhamsted requires more sports facilities, the new facilities should be in Berkhamsted, not next door to McDonalds, Bourne End, Hemel HP2. It should be extra facilities, not the destruction of the existing ones.

As the saying goes, if it is not broke do not fix it. Broadwater is a much loved well used facility in the town centre, where football has been played for over 100 years, with accompanying community social facilities. It works because it is in the right location. Broadwater and the whole area between the canal and railway should remain the green lungs of Berkhamsted town centre, zoned for leisure and amenity use.

As explained below, under current law, to get planning permission to build on Broadwater relevant criteria have to be satisfied.

Significant development should be focused on locations which are or can be made sustainable, through limiting the need to travel and offering a genuine choice of transport modes. From a transport and pollution perspective putting sports facilities 3 miles away from the town centre is an environmental disaster and having children playing next to the A41 does not sound healthy either.

Existing open space, sports and recreational buildings and land, including playing fields, should not be built on unless:

1. a) an assessment has been undertaken which has clearly shown the open space, buildings or land to be surplus to requirements; or
2. b) the loss resulting from the proposed development would be replaced by equivalent or better provision in terms of quantity and quality in a suitable location; or
3. c) the development is for alternative sports and recreational provision, the benefits of which clearly outweigh the loss of the current or former use.

Dealing with each in turn:

1. The existence of our club operating at pitch capacity shows this condition is clearly not applicable. The official report rates the Broadwater pitch quality as good and under our club’s management it is used as six Berkhamsted football teams’ home ground (three adult and three youth). If Berkhamsted gets a larger population, then more spectators will turn up at the existing town centre location thereby meeting a growing leisure need.
2. Whatever quantity or quality of sports facilities are configured within the sports bit of Thakeham’s Bulbourne Cross proposal, they will not meet this condition because Bourne End is not a suitable location to replace a Berkhamsted town centre facility. Bourne End is inferior to Broadwater for Berkhamsted people, whatever mode of transport they use.

Many supporters walk to Broadwater and have a drink before and/or after the game. The Bourne End facilities would be 3.5 miles away by road from Broadwater. That is not walking distance. Drivers will not be able to drink alcohol if they use their cars. The proposed 400 space car park at Bourne End shows it is only accessible by car. All buses that come to Berko stop within walking distance of Broadwater. Hardly any buses go to Bourne End. Berko station is literally behind the goal at Broadwater. Rail travellers will find that the nearest station to Bourne End is Boxmoor (not Berkhamsted), both stations being several miles away from Thakeham’s proposed new sports facility. Thakeham/BSGCA witter on about cycling. In the real world, cycle stands lie empty on matchdays as people arrive at out of town football grounds by car. The environmental and traffic congestion caused by extra people using cars to get to and from Bourne End instead of walking or using bus or rail routes to enjoy town centre football at Broadwater is considerable.

Bogus attempts are being made by BSGCA to claim that there is better quality because the non-league stadium will be built to step 2 football standard, and Broadwater is only big enough for step 3. The town of Berkhamsted will never be big enough to support step 2 football.  Step 2 is officially elite football. Elite means players earn their living from football.  There are only 43 step 2 teams in the whole of England. Two are in this corner of Hertfordshire, being at St Albans City and at Hemel Hempstead North (Vauxhall Road). To suggest there could be a third in Hemel Hempstead South (at Bourne End) is ridiculous. Our Saturday teams play at steps 4 and 7.  We do have ambitions for their promotion to step 3 and step 6. We have realistic plans and funds to do that at Broadwater by adding an extra stand. The BSGCA are not doing us a favour by kicking us out of town to a step 2 standard facility. There is no point in rattling around in a new shiny ground in Bourne End if money will run out within a few years, because the club has lost its town centre fan base and secondary income. Developments need to be financially sustainable.

With regard to quantity we believe that the number of people getting their recreation through watching our football matches, with fall if the club is kicked out of Berkhamsted to Bourne End. The Thakeham/BSGCA plan adds a full -sized artificial football pitch/training area and additional youth football pitches with dressing rooms. It should be noted that these facilities can be put in Bourne End without having to sell Broadwater-see 5 below. Furthermore, there are plenty of other proposals for additional artificial pitches-see section 6, leading us to question the need for one in Bourne End. The youth pitches, if they come under the control of the BSGCA, will not be for the children who need them-see section 7.

1. The alternative sports are a single team rugby club (potentially moving from near Tring to very near an existing rugby club at Chaulden -Camelot), and gymnastics (potentially being moved from Ashlyns School in Berkhamsted out of town to Bourne End-a less suitable location on transport grounds like football). 

 

5. Why it is not necessary to put housing on Broadwater to obtain additional sports facilities.

Both the draft local housing plan and the Thakeham alternative allow Berkhamsted to meet its target housing numbers, without building on Broadwater.

The vast amount of extra housing for Berkhamsted will come with S106 money from the developers, which can be spent on sports facilities. We note that a few years back, the last major development in Berkhamsted (Bearroc) provided several youth football pitches in Durrants Lane. They lie unused, even though they are closer for residents than Bourne End will be.

S106contributions plus sports club money, relevant sporting body and Sport England grants, and taxpayer money should be sufficient to fund facilities without any need to destroy the existing facilities at Broadwater.

It may be counterproductive for those developing additional sporting facilities to have any proceeds from the sale of Broadwater. Grant giving bodies are charities that work on the additionality principle. They fund organisations and projects that would not go ahead without their grants, because of a lack of finance. Having £10m+ from the sale of Broadwater will be a handicap in attracting grants.

There really is no need for the BSGCA to sell Broadwater for housing to finance the Thakeham sporting facilities. This is because all that will need financing is buildings. That is because Thakeham will allegedly donate all of the potential sports land at Bourne End as well as terrace it, put in drainage, a road and 400 car park spaces.

The most expensive bit to build is the floodlit non-league stadium- which of course is not needed at Bourne End if Berkhamsted FC stay at Broadwater.

An artificial pitch for the community is the next most expensive bit. A few years ago, Berkhamsted Raiders thought they could get grants and afford one without selling Broadwater. We know that, because they unsuccessfully tried to put one in place of the natural grass at Broadwater! At Bourne End it is even more affordable, as a day-time user would be right next door in the shape of Thakeham’s proposed new school. See section 6 on whether such a pitch is really needed.

The big space eater at Bourne End is 6 youth football pitches. Some are the same size as two unused youth football pitches in Durrants Lane in Berkhamsted. Looking at Thakeham’s proposal, the school next door could share dressing rooms for youth/school pitches, saving community costs and making even less need to sell Broadwater. Many of the younger age groups do not need dressing rooms anyway.

We explain in section 7, why we are believe that there is no shortage of youth football pitches in Berkhamsted. Even if there is a case for them in Bourne End next door to McDonalds, Bourne End, Hemel Hempstead HP2, they ought to be used by Hemel teams. That means they should not be donated to BSGCA, who under their constitution, would have to give preference to Berkhamsted inhabitants, instead of the Bourne End and Hemel youth that are more local to the site.

6. Artificial football pitches and Berkhamsted.

We do not believe the claims that the Thakeham plan is necessary to add a second full size artificial pitch allegedly for Berkhamsted on top of the one that Berkhamsted Raiders share with Ashlyns School. It is one of four extra for Dacorum, as described in the May 2020 Dacorum Local Facility Plan. That report was based on the statement in The Knight Kavanagh & Page April 2019 report at page 48 that there are no formal plans in place to create additional 3G provision in Dacorum, which was seriously misleading.

Consider the following:

• Hemel Hempstead FC have since that report, installed such a full-sized pitch at Vauxhall Road.
• The hockey club at the Cow Roast have since got planning permission for a floodlit pitch that can take football training.
• There are plans outside Dacorum, in another county for two more full size artificial pitches within two miles of Berkhamsted. The grant funding conditions will inevitably include community access. If instead of sticking rigidly to council and county boundaries in writing reports, KK&P would have known that.
• Berkhamsted Collegiate School had already stated on the public record, that they want a full size 3G pitch and that they are going to build pitches in Berkhamsted south of the A41. The council’s role should be to refuse planning permission unless community use is included. Such s106 agreements are the normal quid pro quo for straining infrastructure and leisure resources by expanding the local population through extra housing. We recommend that Berkhamsted Collegiate School is only allowed to sell Haslam’s Field for housing if it funds from the proceeds, a replacement facility south of the A41, that as well as private sector school use includes a floodlit artificial football pitch with good community use availability.
• Watford Ladies have also identified a site in Dacorum.
• We were also approached by a school in Hemel to support their plans for an artificial pitch.
• Thakeham/BSGCA now plan one at Bourne End-is it necessary given the above?

It is anybody’s guess in what order the extra artificial pitch facilities will be constructed, and whether some will fall by the wayside when they realise that the glut will leave them uneconomic to operate.

7. Youth football pitches and Berkhamsted.

Dacorum Council relies on a defective playing pitch strategy informed by KK&P and a related poorly composed local football facilities plan.

They grossly overstate the number of football pitches required, with a ridiculous assumption that each pitch can only be used as a home ground by two teams, without becoming a poor quality pitch. The official report rates the Broadwater pitch quality as good and under our club’s management it is used as six Berkhamsted football teams’ home ground (three adult and three youth).

Lazy thinking has been that as girls football expands, lots more youth football pitches are needed. The expected growth in girls football can be met by the existing stock of pitches being used on Saturdays, rather than adding to the Sunday peak period problem, and expensive additional youth pitches and facilities.

Using 2011 census figures for overall populations (as we do not have youth population figures) and KK&P youth pitch numbers of 111 it is easily seen that the existing stock of community use pitches are in the wrong place.

Area	Population	%	Pitches if allocated on population.	Existing pitches Per KK&P	Over/(under) supply
Hemel	94,932	74	83	53	(30)
Berkhamsted	20,641	16	18	46	28
Tring	11,929	9	10	12	2
Total	127,502	100	111	111	0

Even without Thakeham, Berkhamsted Raiders (who have someone on the board of the BSGCA) are adding 9 more youth pitches to their empire for season 2021-22.

Dacorum’s challenge should be to find space for youth pitches for Hemel youngsters as part of its plans. The tie up with the BSGCA is why Thakeham will not provide pitches for Hemel youngsters. The BSGCA are obliged by their constitution to put Berkhamsted inhabitants first.

If the Thakeham/BSGCA plan goes through, it will create the farcical situation of Berko parents driving miles to Bourne End with their footballing children to a BSGCA owned site, damaging the environment and the travel time each way is a waste of precious family time on Sundays.

[Winslow Boy]

I’m not reading all that. Can someone sun it up in a paragraph?

[Karen Browne]

39 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

I’m not reading all that. Can someone sun it up in a paragraph?

Feel free to use this document to replace paper in the loo to compensate for loo roll shortage.

 

Will that do

[Rhodes]

On 10/05/2022 at 15:56, Karen Browne said:

Feel free to use this document to replace paper in the loo to compensate for loo roll shortage. Will that do

Karen - That's a reaIIy poor attitude for something so important, Berkhamsted Chairman Steve Davis won't thank you. 

[Rhodes]

On 07/03/2022 at 17:05, Rhodes said:

What is the situation now at Broadwater out of interest, have the likes of Paul Forster, 'independent' Chair of the Berkhamsted Sports Ground Charitable Association Limited (BSGCA), Howard Wells, Chair of the Dacorum Sports Network and Keith Pollard, Chairman of Berkhamsted Raiders gone away quietly with their tails firmly between their legs, taking unscrupulous Sussex based developers Thakeham with them, or is the fight to 'criminally' move the Club away from its spiritual home still ongoing

Great news foIks, what an embarrassing cIimb down from the not fit for purpose Berkhamsted Sports Ground Charitable Association Limited (BSGCA): 

Comrades Delighted To Confirm 6 More Years At GCS (pitchero.com)

It’s official Berkhamsted FC have signed a new lease that will keep them at The Glencar Community Stadium till June 2028, this is great news and we will continue to have constructive talks with our Landlords to build on  this.  All is very encouraging.

Edited October 20, 2022 by Rhodes

[Rhodes]

On 19/10/2022 at 14:36, Rhodes said:

Great news foIks, what an embarrassing cIimb down from the not fit for purpose Berkhamsted Sports Ground Charitable Association Limited (BSGCA)

It's interesting that ever since former 'influential' Berkhamsted Raiders Chairman Keith Pollard stepped away from the Club it has all gone very quiet on the Western Front with regards to Berkhamsted FC's controversial move from Broadwater to the backwater Bourne End site. You have to wonder whether Mr Pollard was deviously behind 'the venture' the entire time, from day one, and the likes of gulliable Independent' Chair of the Berkhamsted Sports Ground Charitable Association Limited (BSGCA), Paul Forster, and self-important Chair of the Dacorum Sports Network, Howard Wells, weren't really that fussed if the move went ahead or not as they would not gain from it personally, unlike the arrogant Mr Pollard.

Edited February 6, 2023 by Rhodes