Town Hall meeting wed 6th sept

[Guest]

liam... i agree with you... the club needs to communicate ..but until they see light at the end of the tunnel , and some real commitment from the local authorties then its going to be up hill struggle......

 

To be fair MD views will not have changed from the first meeting.. where he needs land to develop beyond a new stadium but to have leaisure and commercial property on the site to ensure the club can be viable in runing a non league club..the way we all want it to be...

 

nothing new or doubt has changed in his mind...its just getting the back up from the council and a peice of land to devlope...and planing permission i guess....but thats what I heard at the first meeting....

 

chris s

[Barry Scott]

While I applaud Deaner for the breadth of his vision no council is going to agree to sell off a site big enough to accompany all he wants in it. Firstly, the council got burned big time over the Wexham Park fiasco (we all know the site is nigh on undevelopable until there are significant boundary changes) so is not going to hand over another site for development without heavy scrutiny of the plans.

 

There's also the small matter of Deaner's involvement at Carlisle and Oxford (I stand to be corrected) where he promised to build new stadium/hotel complexes which for one reason or another got nixed before they got off the ground. Now he may have pumped huge amounts of cash into the club (a lot of it foolishly I might add) but if he couldn't get them off the ground at clubs with hugely bigger attendances than ours and established roots in league football, what the hell hope have we got with a dwindling fan base.

 

Also, I fail to see the council agreeing to sell of more land for commercial development when you can look around the town and see a majority of shop units and offices lying empty. And as for leisure well Montem is falling apart, the playcentre is closing, the rugby club is falling to bits so I don't think leisure is high up on the agenda either.

 

Now... if Deaner were to say "give me a patch of land for a 4,000 capacity stadium, 500 seats, a car park for 100 cars and eight coaches and a clubhouse" I think they'd go for it, but if he overdoes it, it'll get shot down immediately.

[Martin]

Ian,

 

I'm sorry to hear that things like Saturday sre part of the reason you are no longer joining us. Fellow supporters like yourself are the reason I attend the games through thick and thin.

 

I think the reason we have conversations like this - is because we are all so passionate about the club and the last 8 years in particular have been hugely frustrating. This fustration boils over regularly particularly when things are not going well on the field.

 

I hope you reconsider.

[Ted]

The full motion read

 

 

"This council notes:

1. That since the 2003/04 seasonSlough Town FC has not had a permanent home and has been ground sharing with Windsor and Eton FC at its Stag Meadow ground in Windsor.

 

2.This council has previously promised to support Slough Town FC return to its old Wexham Park ground, rather than develop a new ground in the Borough.

 

3. The protests made to the council by Slough Town FC supporters, inclugreen oding:

 

a) A three day demonstration on the green outside the Town Hall.

 

The sending of over 300 red card post cards to the leader of the council.

 

c) The red card protest at the televised FA cup match in 2004 against Walsall FC:

 

d) The standing of Slough Town Supporters Trust candidates in the recent May 2006 elections to this council &

 

e) The continued flow of letters addressed to the Leader of the Council in the local press on this issue.

 

4. As a result of this Council's hostility towards the club there has been a worrying lack of dialogue and engagement with the club and its supporters to fnd a sustainable solution to secure the club's long term future in Slough.

 

5. That claims made by the leader of this council that supporters representitives have failed to ask for a meeting with him are at odds with the following evidence:

 

a0 the chairman of the supporters trust, Mike Lightfoot, has previously contacted the Leader and was instructed to ring his office and organise a meeting. However after 6 phone calls to the Leaders office Mr Lightfoot was still waiting to receive a reply.

 

The red card protest has been previously noted and commented upon by the leader himself, but yet has failed to reply to any of the correspondance his office received as part of this campaign.

 

c) Several of the members elected this year in the ruling coalition have expressed their desire to resolve this matter in their election literature.

 

d) Last month the Mayor delivered a note to the secretary of the supporters trust stating that he wished to arrange a meetig with him. However despite thesupporters trust's keenness to speak with the Mayor, the Mayor has yet to finalise a suitable time and date for this meeting.

 

e) Even Liberal councillors have expressed their desire to help the football club, as articulated in theelection night count on May 4th.

 

 

6. Not withstanding the Leaders own deep seated antipathy towards the club, it is clear from the evidence that even members of his own political group want him to urgently meet with representitives of the club and its supporters to constructively work to find a way of bringing Slough Town FC back to the Borough.

 

This council beleives:

 

1. It is vital for a Town the size of Slough to have a successful and thriving football club within the borough.

 

2. That Slough Town FC needs to return to a ground based within the Borough of Slough as soon as possible.

 

This Council resolves:

 

1. That the leader of the council urgently meets with representitives of the club and its supporters to constructively work to find a way of bringing Slough Town FC back to the Borough.

 

2. That the minutes of every meeting between this Council and the club and its supporters be made available to all elected members.

 

3. That the leader of the Council write to all elected members every 2 months to provide a regular update on the [progress being made to bring Slough Town FC back to the Borough."

 

 

The vote was tied 17-17. Unfortunately the Mayor, MacIsaac, used his casting vote to defeat the motion as he "Cannot agree with the wording of the motion"

 

3 of the BILLD group abstained (Hewit, Plimmer and Arnold).

 

If you think we've been badly treated, spare a thought for the residents of Broom and Poplar Houses, the flats in Langley, whose 13 week refurbishment has taken 2 years, and might be finished in November>

[Guest]

what does this mean

[Tom]

So this leaves us in exactly the same position as before the meeting.

 

Will we be on the next agenda with the hope of getting this motion passed?

[BFR]

I thought Arnold was no longer in the BILLD and instead formed the Centre Group

[Ted]

Quote:

King Tut said:
I thought Arnold was no longer in the BILLD and instead formed the Centre Group

Yes, but as far as I could tell he sat with the BILLD group, so rightly or wrongly, I've included him with them.

[BFR]

So which Labour councillor couldn't be arsed to turn up and vote? It was their meeting!

[Roger Rebel]

He also voted with them on the first motion.

[Ted]

I think that Chris S and everyone else needs to think about what the next steps should be. It was close, and with a bit more pressure a vote could be won next time. I do however think that as long as Stokes is in charge, nothing worthwhile will come out of things. There's a lot more to feedback on this evening's happenings, a lot,lot more, but I need a break first.

[brighton_rebel]

So when will the presentation meeting from the Trust take place? Surely that would be the next constructive step, maybe followed by a public meeting?

[HorshamRebel]

"The vote was tied 17-17. Unfortunately the Mayor, MacIsaac, used his casting vote to defeat the motion as he "Cannot agree with the wording of the motion""

 

I think that proves once ancd for all that the mayor is completly apathetic towards the club and the town as a whole.

[BFR]

No, it adds further proof that McIssac is a dithering fool

[Guest]

I must firstly thank all those attended...

 

This meeting has again highlighted and vindicated the trust in a way, because The Mayor said he wanted the 2 parties to have a meeting, the labour party put up a very basic proposal and after some debate the proposal went to vote..

 

17 votes each with the mayor (David MacIssac) having the casting vote and he had an opportunity to actually make a wish he wanted to come true..but voted against the motion !!! work that one out....?????

 

But as you can see the billd and others

EXCEPT Cllr Plimmer and Cllr Arnold and Cllr Hewitt, who I was please at least they had the balls to abstain and keep an open mind about it ...

 

The vote was close and would have been won if The Mayor had vote for it...and proves that all a long they have no intention to meet us at any stage.

 

The only thing we can really do that will have a big effect on these people is to fight them at the next election...and the sub committee will now meet to put into action our election plans...

 

I think we should target David Mac Issac's seat in wexham for starters...

 

cheers chris s

[brighton_rebel]

Could someone - Ted? - write something up about the meeting for the next programme?

[HorshamRebel]

We could then give them some programmes to read

[mal316]

The issues seem to be that previous attempts to show the Council how you feel have slightly rubbed them up the wrong way.

 

If the vote was that close and the Mayor seems to be almost going your way why not get a petition together asking for the meeting. That way he will see just how many 'residents', which I use loosely as part of your support is out of the area, want these talks to happen.

 

I am sure that even Windsor supporters would sign it to help you find your own ground, and I am not trying to say good ridance, it's just that like Slough Town, we cannot fully implement all our plans to grow as a club until this happens.

 

At the end of the day no one wants to see a club go out of business, and as we have seen posted on these forums before, clubs should try and pull together to help each other.

[Roger Rebel]

No Mal the p**** voted against to make it 17-17, and then used his casting vote to defeat us.

[Ted]

Quote:

mal316 said:
The issues seem to be that previous attempts to show the Council how you feel have slightly rubbed them up the wrong way.

Don't think so. They were already dead set against us, but three of them have now abstained, so it is moving slowly our way. The problem with MacIsaac is that he says one thing to your face, then goes and does something else. A few weeks ago he appeared to be trying to set up a meeting, then he went and voted against it.