http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/aug/24/tottenham-hotspur-boris-johnson-stadium?CMP=twt_gu Boris Johnson is on the verge of offering Tottenham Hotspur FC millions of pounds in assistance to remain in their north London home and help regenerate the area after the recent riots. But the north London club has also won permission in the high court for a judicial review of the decision to award the Olympic stadium in Stratford to a joint bid from Newham council and West Ham United. A full hearing will take place on 18 October after Mr Justice Collins overturned an earlier ruling and agreed Spurs had an "arguable case" on claims that the east London council fell foul of EU state aid rules in loaning £40m to West Ham to complete conversion work on the stadium. The news came hours after City Hall sources confirmed that an agreement was close on a package of measures to make White Hart Lane in Haringey, where the Spurs ground is located, a cornerstone of plans to regenerate the riot-hit area and subsidise the redevelopment. But they stressed the offer was not contingent on Spurs dropping the legal action, despite speculation to the contrary. A spokesman for the London mayor said: "We have had constructive negotiations with Tottenham Hotspur and Haringey council. We are hopeful a deal can be reached on building a new stadium on the current site so the mayor can accomplish his long-term ambition to regenerate a much wider area in this neglected and impoverished part of London." Johnson's plan faces the prospect of protests about handing public money to a Premier League club. It is understood that the package includes a contribution of about £8.5m towards the regeneration of the "public realm" around the stadium, a sum that could increase as plans are advanced. It will come from a £50m fund put together by Johnson in the wake of the riots to regenerate affected areas, including £20m from central government to be invested specifically in Tottenham and Croydon. Haringey council is believed to have substantially relaxed planning restrictions in a bid to get the scheme off the ground. Spurs had originally prepared plans for the £450m redevelopment of the stadium as their first option but, in the face of delays and escalating costs, turned to Stratford. When the Olympic Park Legacy Company ruled that West Ham's bid, which proposed to retain the athletics track, should be chosen over the Spurs proposal, they criticised the process and launched the legal action. Lawyers acting for Spurs were given permission by the judge to apply to make the recent controversy over an OPLC employee, who was also paid by West Ham during the bidding process, a factor in their case. Independent investigations by both parties found that OPLC director of corporate affairs Dionne Knight, who was paid £25,000 by West Ham for consultancy work unbeknown to her employers, had no effect on the bidding process. The high court decision strengthens Spurs' negotiating hand with the mayor and reduces West Ham's chances of being able to move into the stadium in time, for the 2014-15 season. It could also be hugely embarrassing for the OPLC and the government, with major implications for the legacy from the Olympics, if they are ultimately forced to re-tender for the stadium. "We are delighted that Mr Justice Collins upheld all grounds relating to the Olympic Park Legacy Company's decision-making process when recommending a preferred bidder," said OPLC chair Margaret Ford. "We are disappointed that permission for a judicial review has been granted on some limited points but we are confident in our case."
Amazing how these bureaucrats can get their fingers out of their arses so rapidly, when given a "nudge" in the right direction!
Isn't the grounds for appealing against the OS that using public funds is wrong? Won't we get caught up in that also?
That sounds more like an £8.5m pay off to stop the opening of a large can of worms if you ask me. It's a sweetener to walk away and stay away.
£8.5m of taxpayer's money handed to Spurs £568m worth of taxpayer's money used for a Championship side's stadium If you're going to protest, go for the one that's a real waste of taxpayer's money...
Agreed, I think that would be very hard to prove in light of the riots. Let's face it, the area around the ground is where the funding would be spent. It needed it before, but now....
Nice of him to move out the majority of the traders before it kicked off. Thinking of how the area used to be (not in any way cheapening the impact on those affected) and the businesses that are gone from there, it could have been far, far worse.
8.5 million is that what all this was about, in a 450 million project? And Spurs are questioning the use of a 40 million LOAN? Just shows you how petty they have got. Let hope the police carry on with their enquiry. WHU Statement on club website: A West Ham United statement said: "We acknowledge that the final hurdle of a Judicial Review against London of Borough of Newham and the OPLC in relation to West Ham United being the preferred bidder for the Olympic Stadium has been granted on a very narrow basis. "A full hearing will take place on 18 October and we remain confident that Newham and the OPLC will be successful in defending limited points regarding the £40m loan that would be made to the Legacy Stadium Partnership. "Separately, and only for clarification as we have been inundated with inquiries with regard to a Scotland Yard statement today, we confirm the Metropolitan Police's Economic and Specialist Crimes Unit is dealing with the serious matter of a private investigator acting unlawfully, reportedly under instruction by Tottenham Hotspur. "This is in relation to reported breaches of the Data Protection Act and Computer Misuse Act as a result of the unlawful acquisition of bank and telephone records belonging to senior executives at the club and the OPLC. "We are advised that if found guilty of these crimes, those responsible can expect to receive custodial sentences. We have full faith in the police investigation into this matter and shall continue to provide the fullest of assistance to them. "In response to media inquiries, we can confirm that West Ham today received a document from Tottenham asking us to give up our claims against them in relation to the above, in return for Tottenham withdrawing their judicial review proceedings. West Ham naturally refused. "We look forward to the 18 October and a successful conclusion whereby we can deliver the multi-sport legacy that Lord Coe envisaged for east London and the rest of the nation."
Yes. Exactly the same self-righteous claptrap you published yeaterday. We weren't impressed then either. I suppose the ironical side of all this hypocritical nonsense is lost on Sullivan & Co?
I think he's the only West Ham fan posting on this forum, Ensil. The WWF are considering whether to declare them an endangered species, apparently.
I'm not happy the riots happened, but there's no doubt the 'difficulties' THFC faced with the NP, have now somewhat disappeared!
I suspect we're still a long way off seeing work commencing on the stadium. £8.5m is nowhere near enough to get the 'funding gap' closed. Doubtless there may be more concessions/money coming in, but wasn't the funding gap abut £100m? I hope the stadium building is underway by some time next year, but my bet is that it won't be.
I'm sure we wouldn't have to look too far to find a nice, generous Middle Easyern "airline" to sponsor our new stadium. I know we have obvious Jewish connections, but these things get overlooked whwn money is involved.
May well be the case NSIS, we'll see. As I say, my feeling is that work on building the new stadium won't commence next year. When it will commence I wouldn't like to guess, I just hope it's finished this decade, but I'm not counting on it.
There are many ways in which councils/mayor can help Spurs. Transport links, Utilities (water, gas electric etc), adoption/construction of roads within any new development, road closures, hours of working, planning (how many new houses they can squeeze in), future Business Rates, theres loads of it. I'm sure Levy and Co. could negociate a pretty good deal. As far as I know the goons still owe London Underground 7 million towards just the transport upgrading. I stopped working for LU in 2006 and despite an agreement, no one within LU had bothered to chase them for the money at that stage. Too many goon fans within the LU heiracy i'd guess,
