Grew up in a council house built in 53 , got a new bath in about ‘85 , steel windows coal fire back boiler that ultimately didn’t work and one steel radiator in the ‘scullery’ , tiled floor . Was involved in the first NHE re work in the early 90’s I think , depending on your needs you could have nice garden wall , fireplace , shed , kitchen CH, done and some other superficial items too , how times had changed !!
I think that was done with the KC windfall. It had to be spent on capital projects, not give everybody a 5 year holiday from council tax.
As a ratepayer in Hull at the time, both domestic and commercial, I didn't expect a '5 year free holiday from council tax' on the back of the KC windfall. and of course I didn't get one. In fact in the area I lived and worked at the time when the council were throwing money about like confetti, I didn't see a penny spent. I saw double glazing, new fencing and new roofs fitted to semi detached council houses in Prescott territory, Preston Road, which were later bulldozed and double glazing units ordered for council owned blocks of flats in the town centre, and none of them fitted. Also improvements to OPE and NHE, like expensive block paved pavements and new garden walls with fancy wrought iron railings. And whilst I'm on my soap box this morning, I see HKR have just submitted plans for a new retail and sports village alongside Craven Park, which look very similar to plans the Allams submitted for land around the MKM ( KC) stadium when City were riding high, the plans that got laughed out of court, ridiculed, and scoffed at and as a result never saw the light of day. Stands back and awaits OLM to respond claiming the Allams had no money, etc, but we will never know now, will we? Who said 'where there is a will there is a way'......?
A massive part of the Allam's plan involved the Fair land which everyone knows isn't going to ever happen. Rovers plans are on land they actually own so I can't see why they can't progress.
These councils are run by incompetence nowadays! In what other day job would you be able to waste hard working people's money on botched projects and mis-measurements and not be shown the door? We've had similar **** ups up here in terms of thousands and thousands of pounds worth of double glazing units being scrapped because they're the wrong size...The Muppet who measured them?,bullet proof with a jacket pocket rammed with brown envelopes. In short,these bureaucratic half-wits are Teflon coated relations of some or other thick twat in the same organisation!!! Just to add some context as to why my rant carries a similar weight as yours...We had a cap on our Council Tax,like England, but this year our thick as **** 'first minister' decided to scrap that and give the council's carte Blanche to set their own .... Glasgow went up 7.5% North Lanarkshire 10% and best of all... Falkirk(where my lad lives) 13.2% That from the same useless bastards that raised the minimum alcohol pricing unit from 50p to 65p and set up a multi million pound safe drug injection unit project in the East End of Glasgow that no ****er uses and used needles are strewn everywhere...They've now installed sharps bins all over the adjacent housing estates. These bastards are bullet proof,North and South of the border.
Allam's plan was in his head, HKR's are there for all to see. When challenged to show his plan Allam wouldn't /couldn't produce them and said they were his and cost him £3000, and if the council wanted to see them they could pay him to see them. Perhaps he was using the same plan he was pictured with at our new stadium in Melton. The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.
Yes,I understand where you're coming from but you've omitted the current owner's plans and whether or not they are also 'in his head' ? The last time it was brought up at a Q&A,didn't he throw it at Tan Kesler to deal with...Has the plan 'done one' along with Mr Kesler?
It was a £100m investment into the area. Not all Allam money obviously, but a combination of Government/Sport England and so on grants, plus some input from the council like a favourable deal on the land ( like the one gifted to HKR for the land they are about to develop) It was a deal that needed massive work and input from both sides but it never happened. There was a proposal from one side and nothing from the other so it was never going to get off the ground. Also the way the plans were handled when put forward to the council in the initial meeting saw the huge falling out between the Allams and the council and a total lack of respect shown to the person who was willing to put his own money into the project. They may have wanted a favourable deal and ownership of the stadium, I and possibly no-one will ever know the true facts behind that first meeting with Assem and Geraghty. I do know Assem offered a substantial sum of money to charity if the minutes of the meeting could be made public, but they never were. So plans to develop the land, very similar plans to those submitted by HKR for their stadium/land yesterday, saw the rot set it that soured everything from then on. We saw the ridiculous and ill- thought out name change disaster, a move IMO to distance the club from the council and nothing else, then the subsequent fall out between the fans and owners because of it. Resulting in an atmosphere around the club that indirectly cost us our place in the Premier League because of the fall out from it. Conclusion? What could ( and should) have been. eh? Evidence for all to see across the city at the 'new' Craven Park.
That's all fine, apart from the fact Sports England didn't have a pot to piss in, and neither did the government, that's why they withdrew funding for the redevelopment of the area opposite West park. The whole area was scheduled for demolition with new builds and public squares. As you say, what could have been.
We have been down this road, yes literally, many times. The road in question being Walton Street. What exactly was the driving force to make a generator manufacturer suddenly decide to own a footbal club? A football club days away from a winding up order, the revenue people rattling their tin for 24 million quid. (Oh yes, and that was just the start, but I get ahead of myself). While other interested parties were going about due diligence, why does the generator manufacturer leap in and jump the queue? Whatever the truth is, this is the story I will tell. Papa stood at the bottom of Walton Street and took a steady stroll to Anlaby Road. At a council/charity/industry meeting, the question was asked of the Liberal council, is the freehold available? The answer, Yes. All this vacant land, kerr-ching. Buy the club for a quid, get the freehold of the stadium, council hands over the car park and West Park. Sell the lot. Easy peasy quick millions. While he was quickly signing a cheque for a quid to buy the club and before the ink was dry, the revenue bill was presented and the 24 million quid cheque was signed. And NOW he starts some sort of due diligence. And discovers another 20 odd million that need guarantees. Oh yea, and discovers the previous owners had mortgaged the lease. And all the other nonsense that had gone on. Not to worry, Papa approaches the now ruling Labour council. As you say, the minutes of that meeting are not available, except the answer was a definite, No. And the fun begins, carried out on the front pages of theHull Daily Mail. It was not an opportunity missed. There never was, and never will be, an opportunity.
I don't know if Sport England had a pot at all Tony, I was generalising with them. There are all kinds of pots to dip into for projects like that. Lottery funds? Regeneration Funds of which HU3 was high on the list, and as we know nothing has happened there. The planned public square across road from the stadium with the plans shown on the front page of the HDM never happened either. Another pet one of mine is the site of the fine old Government Buildings facing Spring Bank, alongside Polar Bear. In a rush to demolish it, thanks to diehard Labour councillor Gordon Castleton at the time all public opposition was brushed aside and it was bulldozed. Now 30 odd years on the site stands empty and derelict. Shame on them.
There's a lot of conflicting information about the motives of Assem Allam. I was told, by someone who knew him reasonably well, that he'd said he'd made his money now and was focusing on leaving a legacy for the area - the diabetes centre and various hospital donations being part of this. If he was purely money orientated in purchasing City, I don't see why he'd be giving money away at the same time. From what I was told, that can equally be disbelieved, he initially wanted to turn City into a self-funding club with practically free season passes. The area development and ownership of the stadium was integral to this. The money needed to pay off loans, then the alleged no from the council, resulted in the change of his mind and then the further name change problems, followed by ill-health resulted in him washing his hands of the club and passing it to his son, who ran it as a money-making venture.
Almost spot on there except the last bit. I don't think Ehab ran it as money making venture. It wiped it's own arse clean, yes, and we were not in debt, unlike today, but making money? I thought Assem became interested in City after he'd made a packet on cruise ships? he built for Egypt at Drypool. The first time he visited the stadium was with Omar Shariff, a big friend of his apparently. Waggy and Tom Courtney were there too, I forget the occasion now. But it impressed him and the fact someone as famous as Omar Shariiff was a fan of Hull City.
