Stadium development

[Chris1]

Today's IOTG reports comments by Mr Piper to the effect that the next work on the stadium is expected to be in the summer. As usual no proper explanation is offered as to why plans have been changed. The nearest we get is that following the move home 'there was a lot of hope that we could build on that immediately but we have been left wanting in several areas'. What areas?

 

I do hope we are not going to return to the days when we fans were fed a diet of official announcements designed to give us as little information as possible.

 

The article says the work involves 'turning the pitch and moving it away from Hartsdown Road'. Now either the plans have been changed or else that phrase is misleading, because if you look at the latest approved plans (available here ) you will see the pitch is only realigned very slightly, and moved only about 7.5 metres.

 

It may be that the architect's 'rotate' has been translated as 'turn', which would make most people think of a 90º turn.

 

Overall the tone of the article is optimistic, but reading between the lines it looks as if approval of the commercial plans by the council acting as landlords is still the stumbling block, as it always was.

 

The club should be praised for their weekly press interviews keeping us fans informed about matters on the pitch. If only they could bring more transparency into their statements about other matters.

 

You might say who are we to demand information about the affairs of a private limited company. Quite true, but it is one that depends heavily on a good relationship with its paying customers. So come on Margate, keep us in the picture!

[jkmaskell]

There are some things that have to be done as part of the planning conditions prior to any work starting on the development itself. Ill trawl through my Council reports and post them here when I find it. I think the problems are there. Theres more than just the business plan to do.

 

Its a pity that we dont hear news from the club itself but through the local media. You are very right about the last line. The fans and those who will use the new Hartsdown Park are the core stakeholders and have to be the primary concern, beside the banks and associated businesses building the development of course.

 

The new Hartsdown Park was never going to be easy. Its going to take time. The best that we fans can do is to stick behind the club for better or for worse. Things have been a whole lot worse than this in the past 3 years. Of course I wasnt with the club until May this year but Im aware of how bad things were.

 

The article is generally positive. It sounds like we are going to have a new Chairman of the Directors in Keith Piper soon which will lead to more stability and the busines plan sounds nearly there. I think theres cause for optimism from the fans.

[michael]

I agree that it would be nice to keep fans in touch, but we must remember that margate football club is a different entity to the company doing the commercial developmet-

[blueblood]

Exactly micheal.We as fans have to accept that developing Hartsdown is a complicated business involving various organisations/companies who live in a commercial world, to whom football is an irrelevance. These people to a larger degree dictate the information which can be released to we the public.A lot of this information will be economicly sensitive to these companies operations and not for general knowledge until all the i's are dotted and t's crossed.Allso i would say Mr Piper is reaching more fans through the paper than on this web site. Onwards and Upwards.

[MargateFan]

I have always found that, even in small projects, the more that you want a result, the more you find that things do not proceed as quickly, or smoothly, as you would like. A project of this level of complexity will take longer, and be more subject to adjustment, than a small project, so I am pretty relaxed about it. We must not let the strength of our expectations overrule the logic of the process.