Wider cause for concern?

Just picked this up from a few areas online, it originated as a comment from a reader of The Mag:

"Wish an investigative journalist would dig into MA as not only is he selling our playing assets but he is selling the land he inherited with the Club. This is all in the accounts and MASH Holdings took the Pitt Street site out of the Club and it is now being built on as a hotel. This is not on the radar compared to the fact that the land above the St James Metro Station which the Club at one point was going to develop with MGM for a casino was also stripped out. This is now also up for sale and with it goes the chance to extend St James Park.”

Hmm. Personally I thought St James could never be extended due to the listed houses, though correct me if I'm wrong. Still, makes for more unpleasant reading and again goes against any hope that he'd be aiming to sell the club.

 

I thought the land belonged to the Council and so they would block this?

 

Till death Do We Part . He owns our souls and the spirit of our City. We must fight Weve just accepted it and it makes me sick.

 

This was what I thought. I was always under the belief that NUFC was a strange one, in that the club owned NO land, which is one of the main reasons it struggles to be bought. I thought even the land the stadium is on doesn't belong to the club but is on a rolling 99-year lease from the council? Was just hoping this could be verified, and that any further gloom could at least be put to bed.

 

I'm pretty sure it leased by the Freeman of the City [council] to the club. They wouldn't do a deal with the devil surely?

 

I hope the council makes very stringent checks before hiring anyone to work on the council, to ensure they don't have any family roots of supporting Sunderland.

 

Planning permission was sought for the area last year. This included the slides idea (slides were rejected but not sure what happened to the main development).
Maybe it got the go-ahead but not in its original format.

I wasn't aware that NUFC were involved to be honest and have always been under the impression it was Council land, but, I could be wrong.

I could never understand how the Gallowgate could be extended without impacting on Strawberry Place, so always thought it was a non-starter.

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/local-news/planning-permission-bid-slides-st-1724317

 

As far as I was aware the land under the stadium is owned by the City Council and Freemen, all the stadium structure belongs to the club and therefore Ashley, Shephard had drawn up plans for a casino complex and hotel but with the reduction in the number of casinos in the final government plan had to withdraw the application and pay back monies already received as part of the deal. The only part of the ground which could be further expanded would be the east stand bringing it up level with the rest of the ground, this is currently blocked because of the properties in the area that would have to be reconciled to achieve any expansion though I believe there are plans in existance should this become possible.

 

I seem to remember, back in the day when Obi was just a young boy, that we wanted to extend the Leazes to well behind the current stand but couldn't get permission because it was given to the City for grazing cattle and as an area for people to walk on.

 

Such gifts, alas, mean nothing when there's money to be had.

Look, for example, at the land in East London given to the people as allotments as a 'thank you' for the soldiers returning home from the Front. That was land given to the people in perpetuity and they were unceremoniously kicked out to build the new olympic site.

It happens all the time and what would happen is that that land could easily be sold at the right meeting for the right amount to pay for some local service which would 'otherwise be cancelled'.

Nothing is safe and even if it were owned by you or I, with the right word to the right people (usually at the right Lodge) a compulsory purchase order could be drawn up.

When these people have their eye on anything they'll get it one way or another.

 

What frightens me more is that nobody seems remotely interested in bothering.