Ashton Vale: An open letter from Bristol City fans to town green campaigners
Dear Applicants,
We write to you as Bristol City Supporters Trust, an independent, voluntary organisation. We represent many thousands of ordinary fans across Bristol and further afield
Many of our members live alongside you in Ashton Vale. We, like you, are ordinary people who have lived and worked and raised families in Bristol, who value the security and friendship that our homes and communities provide.
We respect your impressive struggle and commitment to protect what is precious to you. But we appeal to you now to bring your opposition to the stadium to an end, and, instead, to work with the football club to create a community stadium that you and future generations in Ashton Vale can be proud of.
The time to stop fighting the building of a new stadium in Ashton Vale should have been when the planning application for the stadium was approved in November 2009.
You argued passionately and made your voice heard. Despite your representations, a planning committee of democratically-elected councillors weighed up all the arguments and agreed with their planning officers that the stadium could be built on the land.
This decision was ground-breaking because despite the land being a disused rubbish tip, it is green belt land. It was successfully argued that there were exceptional circumstances, including the fact that after an extensive search by the Bristol City Council planning department alongside Bristol City Football Club, this site was considered the only one possible of hosting a stadium of the size that everyone has agreed Bristol needs.
Let's be clear about the benefits to Bristol. It would bring 5,000 construction jobs during a period when government building programs have stopped. It would create a further 1,000 full time jobs for the people of south Bristol.
It would present the potential for Bristol to have a Premier League club with the massive worldwide exposure and subsequent tourism boost that this would bring to the South West.
It would allow Bristol to host World Cup games with an estimated £150 million gain as a result. It opens up the potential for a new world class music arena saving people from across the South West from the need to travel to Cardiff, Birmingham or London to see major acts.
To varying degrees and in varying ways, this application will be of benefit to millions of people.
The day that planning was approved was the day that your fair battle was lost. Until that point no-one could object to your description of this as a David and Goliath contest. Your small group of local objectors as "David" against the millions of people in the South West who would be the beneficiaries of this development as the "Goliath".
Until that point it was an honourable contest and the massive benefits to the many were democratically agreed to outweigh the negatives to the few.
However, you have not accepted this decision and instead you have opted to carry on your fight by taking advantage of poorly drafted legislation to apply for the land to be classified as a "village green". As you know, this legislation is already in disrepute. It was designed to protect genuine village greens and not a 42 acre rubbish tip.
That has not stopped you from applying. By applying for "village green" status you have gone against the wishes of the majority and you have done so without incurring costs yourselves. Tax payers have had to foot the bill.
You have been free to say whatever you wanted to say about the use of the land without any repercussions if you didn't tell the truth. You are a prime example of why the Campaign for Real Village Greens is campaigning to stop people from using this loophole to seize land and to deprive others of democratically agreed benefits.
Your application for a "village green" on this scrubland risks depriving the citizens of Ashton Vale of a new stadium that would make them proud for generations to come and risks them not having the Club as a new neighbour – a neighbour that would bend over backwards to be accepted in its new home.
The "village green" application is also ignoring the will of the vast majority of the people in the South West. It risks depriving the greater community of a benefit so huge that it is difficult to comprehend.
If you successfully thwart the stadium it will not be a romantic "David and Goliath" victory. It will be a case of never have so few seized so much from so many.
On behalf of the millions of people that you risk unfairly depriving through this dishonourable legal loophole, we ask you to look inside your hearts and withdraw your application for a "village green" on this landfill site. You are in a strong position with both the football club and city council and the time will never be better to re-unite your community by negotiating an outstanding future for every member.
We are passionate about the community of Bristol City supporters that we belong to, and we appreciate that you are equally passionate about the local community that you belong to and that you value so highly. We appeal to you now though, to withdraw your application. In return, we will commit to doing all we can to help you protect and improve the security and peace of your community in the future.
Yours sincerely,
Bristol City Supporters Trust
79 Comments
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by notaname
Tuesday, March 06 2012, 8:34PM
“I was born and bred in Ashton Vale, I lived there for a large part of my life, having being born there, and returning in later life to look after my elderly parent, I am absolutely amazed at whoever these 'folk' are at calling it a 'village green'. This area was never a village green, it was a swamp most of the winter, and also a city dump! I know, I used to dig around there as a young kid back in the '50's. When I returned there in the late '90's to care for my mother, my family and I would to walk across the fields to the Angel Inn, Long Ashton, quite frankly, in all the years we walked there we never saw anyone using the area. So it amazes me that I hear that folk are saying that they use this area and that it should be a village green. Or has this just happened because of 'would like to be Cliftonites' have happened to move into 'Clifton view', and do not want their view obscured by a football stadium. Having lived a long time in Ashton Vale, I really believe that it needs a boost, it was always a backwater, in fact as I remember as a 'kid', it was like the 'back of beyond' and nothing ever happened there. So now is the time for things to happen for Ashton Vale, good luck to Bristol City, hopefully your plans will go thru, and like 'who are these folk' who are opposing the plans, because quite frankly I do not know any geniune folk living in Ashton Vale who is against it.”
by StillWaters, South Bristol
Friday, September 24 2010, 8:20AM
“Slightly off-track, but it appears the petition that BCFC is putting together contains fraudulently-acquired signatures.
Quote from supporters forum:
SnozRobin: "I signed on Saturday in the wifes name" - how many others signed up their entire families and friends without their knowledge?”
by StillWaters, South Bristol
Friday, September 24 2010, 12:08AM
“Here's a link showing the area as is, against the proposed plans:
http://yfrog.com/2mmergeej”
by StillWaters, South Bristol
Thursday, September 23 2010, 11:54PM
“@Andy, Bath
If you use Google Earth, look up Ashton Gate, there's a photo taken from an RC plane pinned to the map - the pin is pretty much dead-centre of the landfill field.
The fields are used for pasture, recreational use (walking with or without dogs), recreation (kite-flying photos from 2007 on Flickr, barbeque photos from earlier years on Ashton Vale Heritage website, etc.). It was also used as a landing site for balloons coming out of the Ashton Court festival.”
by paps, part one, breaking the text to fit.
Thursday, September 23 2010, 11:14PM
“For those unable to view bristol24/7 response to this open letter to residents
Today (September 21), an open letter was published from Bristol City Supporters Trust to the residents of Ashton Vale who have lodged an application for Town Green status for 42 acres of statutory Green Belt land, the majority of which is also designated as a Site of Nature Conservation Interest.
The letter includes the following statement;
¿ The time to stop fighting the building of a new stadium in Ashton Vale should have been when the planning application for the stadium was approved in November 2009. You argued passionately and made your voice heard. Despite your representations, a planning committee of democratically-elected councillors weighed up all the arguments and agreed with their planning officers that the stadium could be built on the land.¿
Presumably the Supporters Trust would therefore agree that the time to have stopped fighting for a supermarket at Ashton Gate should have been when the planning application for the Sainsbury¿s was refused on July 21 2010. The supporters of the supermarket proposal argued passionately and made their voice heard. Despite their representations a planning committee of democratically-elected councillors weighed up all the arguments and voted against allowing a supermarket to be built at Ashton Gate. This most recent application followed an earlier proposal to build a supermarket at Ashton Gate which planning officers recommended should be refused.”
by paps, breaking the text to fit
Thursday, September 23 2010, 11:12PM
“Or do the Supporter¿s Trust only accept the decisions of democratically-elected councillors when they make decisions that they agree with?
In the case of the Town Green application, the legislation under which the applicants have fought their case was approved by democratically elected representatives in the Houses of Parliament and has been strengthened and reinforced time and time again by legal process in the law courts ¿ its impact has been considered and its principles confirmed in the highest courts in the land.
Again it appears that Bristol City Supporters Trust are only interested in accepting the democratic and legal processes when it is to their advantage.
Furthermore, key individuals involved in the Supporters Trust have been happy to comment alongside fellow supporters on the Bristol City fan site who have encouraged fly tipping on the Ashton Vale fields, proposed the posting of excrement through the letter boxes of Ashton Vale residents, and happily suggested means to generally disrupt, intimidate and insult the residents of Ashton Vale who have dared to voice their opposition to the stadium.
Similarly, supporters of the supermarket proposals have felt no concerns about directing insulting and abusive emails to the democratically-elected councillors who sat on the July 21 planning meeting leading to the Leader of the Council making an unprecedented statement to the local press. Meanwhile verbal and online intimidation and threats to those who made statements opposing the supermarket proposal have continued.”
by paps, breaking the text to fit
Thursday, September 23 2010, 11:11PM
“At no point has anybody from the Supporter¿s Trust condemned those who have made comments of the nature described above. Yet they now write an open letter to some of those who have been the targets of abuse asking them to be reasonable and understanding.
The reality of course, is that the Supporter¿s Trust have no real authority with the club, they have no control over what the club can or cannot provide to the residents of Ashton Vale.
The people that have the authory and the opportunity to provide a solution to this ongoing saga are the directors of the club itself. Despite Cllr Simon Cook¿s determination ¿to find a way through [the Town Green recommendation]¿, the reality is that the council¿s Public Rights of Way and Greens committee has very limited abilities to reject the inspector¿s recommendation ¿and it seems unlikely that the football club will simply accept PROWG¿s decision even if it will be made by democratically-elected councillors. As a result, unless a solution is found before the PROWG make their decision it is likely that the parties involved could find themselves tied into a legal process that could last years ¿ and still leave the club with no football stadium.
It doesn¿t have to be this way, of course. Back in July, I wrote an article (http://tinyurl.com/35yzb93) in which I suggested that the club might need to look again at how it obtained its key objective ¿ a new stadium for the football club. I also commented at the time that;”
by paps, breaking the text up to fit
Thursday, September 23 2010, 11:11PM
“¿So far, the football club and its development partners have spent considerable sums bringing in highly paid talent that they hoped would dazzle their opponents with their skill and expertise only to find that the other side with its home-grown unpaid talent has managed to produce a team that has out-thought and out-played their supposedly more illustrious professional opponents.¿
The result of the Town Green inquiry appears to reinforce that comment. It is perhaps time for the club to consider that a glass half empty is preferable to nothing at all ¿ and to put some of the more testosterone-fuelled comments to one side in order to really find a way through.
For a start, the club could officially confirm Colin Sexstone¿s comments on Radio Bristol on the morning of Friday 17th September that the club now has no intention of developing the fields often referred to as ¿Southlands¿ ¿ if the club confirms, as it has been asked to do, that the statement by the BCFC chief executive is accurate than that provides an opportunity for Bristol City Council to issue a public statement that it will establish a ¿voluntary¿ Town Green on the fields south of the line marked by the proposed BRT route.”
by paps, breaking text up to fit
Thursday, September 23 2010, 11:09PM
“Secondly the club can take the advice of its own Supporter¿s Trust and accept the decision of a planning committee of democratically-elected councillors. In particular, the decision that there should not be a supermarket development at Ashton Gate, and abort its third attempt to push through a large retail shed at Ashton Gate stadium.
If the Supporters Trust want to write an open letter to their own directors asking them to officially confirm the statements made by the club¿s chief executive and to heed the Trust¿s advice about accepting the decisions made by democratically elected councillors, I am sure the local media will be happy to print that letter as well.”
by Riaz, Bedminster
Thursday, September 23 2010, 3:05PM
“Oh yes it was a rubbish tip.
http://maps.environment-agency.gov.uk/wiyby/wiybyController?latest=true&topic=waste&ep=query&lang=_e&x=356285.25&y=170916.66666666666&scale=4&layerGroups=2&queryWindowWidth=25&queryWindowHeight=25”