It’s a tiny piece of land and doesn’t warrant stupid valuations from Sainsbury’s, nor do I think they will be asking ludicrous amounts because it would be crazy to hold out for a large sum in the knowledge that a CPO could be on its way which could in turn result in a much worse sum than that offered.

The section 106 is no more or less onerous than you would expect it to be and replacing houses is as simple as, buying other houses, which could have been dealt with ages ago.

I still think the main sticking point is Directors not wanting to put their hands in their pockets and I reckon the Americans don’t want to spend another penny.

If you could have seen the obstacles that Brighton overcame to develop their new ground (which I was involved with), then you will know that where there is the will there is a way and we should have been starting this development at the beginning of lockdown. If we had we would have been watching from a new stand when football starts again proper.

Yes, but we are only trying to build a new stand, not a whole stadium and believe me, the lobbying done by Brighton Directors had a huge impact, particularly against the County Council who were originally against them developing where they did.

Palace can't just buy six houses and gift them to the council, we have to build six new ones. Otherwise the sum total of houses in the Borough will have decreased by six as a result of our project.

Nevertheless, given the promotional stuff from the club anticipated construction beginning about two years ago, there plainly are delays here. Sainsburys is an issue, and though a CPO is a legitimate resolution, that's not a quick process, especially if sainsburys challenge it. That may be a factor in Parish persevering in negotiations this long.

Another thing to consider is that Parish has spoken about the order of importance of the projects. Its something like Training Ground, Stay Up, Academy, Stay Up, Create assets in the team, Stay Up, New Stand.

It might be that he wants to wait until we have the financial cushion of a more valuable, saleable squad before taking on the cost of the stand, though that would be at odds with the idea of the Americans coming in to pay for infrastructure, which seems to be their sole purpose.

Overall its worth remembering that he has pledged commitment to the stand and its importance. Its natural to be impatient, but the club wouldn't have got this far unless they were serious.

Edited by TheBigToePunt (11 Feb 2021 8.12am)

There are hundreds of flats being build in Croydon at the moment.

The demand would make sense the houses being demolished were in a small parish where houses are never build and there was no realistic prospect of the private sector replacing the loss of housing but thats just not the case.

Developers have scoured every inch of the Borough to construct new houses. 1,657 new houses were build in 2019-2020. The council are seeking to add 20,200 between 2011 and 2031, around 12,000 have already been build so they are on track to meet their target even though demand is likely to drop in London following Covid. Why ask a football club to try and do the work of a developer when it's not something the specialise in? Also, how would they differentiate what the club builds and what the private sector would have provided anyway?

It just seems like a pointless token jesture politics to satisfy and ideology, which in practice only delays investment.

p32 of this will help.

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Thanks anyway TBTP, but, comes up document unavailable to view,(on both your links).

I'm a blind man, i'm a blind man, now my room is cold,
When a blind man cries, Lord, he feels it from his soul.
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