George Ferguson: Bristol is in a spin over World Cup 2018
Last week the FA were caught handing out expensive designer handbags to the FIFA 'wags' on their visit to London as part of England's campaign to get the World Cup in 2018. It is deeply embarrassing.
However, far more embarrassing is the froth that Bristol is getting itself into over the faint hope half a dozen of these matches come to the city.
I have heard people quoting fantastic exaggerated financial benefits to the city of hosting the World Cup. These are trumped up by lobbyists, based on some far-fetched formula to do with the advertising value of England and Bristol, being mentioned in the world press! It has nothing to do with reality. In reality it will cost us.
We may not be handing out handbags to FIFA officials, but Bristol is considering a much larger and more sinister present in the form of a planning permission for a giant supermarket at Ashton Gate, on land partly owned by the city council when there is absolutely no planning or retail case for it.
I am all for the World Cup coming to Bristol if by chance England manages to secure it. What is clear is it is far from a shoe-in, any more than Chicago was for the 2016 Olympics, and we don't have Obama to root for us!
More to the point, as a longstanding sponsor of Bristol City, I would like to see a stadium that would serve City well if we make the Premier League one day. However the idea that our community should have a giant retail shed and car park dumped on it because of some far-fetched argument that it is essential to our football hopes is a bogus one that needs exposing. Unfortunately the Bristol Evening Post is encouraging the myth.
The other myth is the so-called 'public' support. An analysis of the online petition (for which the football supporters club incidentally offered cash vouchers for those collecting signatures) reveals less than a third have Bristol addresses and they are predominantly male, the majority coming from outside the city.
It is clear that this is a case of football fans voting for football, not for a hypermarket! This contrasts with the much more genuine anti-supermarket petition which has an even split between men and women and is predominately local Bristol signatories.
I have had pressure put on me to change or moderate my view. There are too many vested interests around the land deals involved and the pressure on the planners and politicians is enormous. They need help in resisting this. They need to see that there is an alternative way that fits our laudable ambition to become a truly sustainable city, and for which there would be far greater long-term economic benefit.
With this in mind we have formed a Bristol based design team to demonstrate that something of true worth to the city can be developed on the Ashton Gate site to benefit the club and that this would release pressure on the Green Belt for housing and employment as well as bring real economic and environmental benefit.
It would be Bristol's first demonstration 'carbon-neutral' neighbourhood as opposed to the proposed carbon hungry big shed retail development, which would turn every day into 'match day' for our local Ashton streets.
It is important that our planners are left to take a truly ethical and independent planning decision on this issue if we are not to be hand-bagged by big business interests.
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by Richard Lane, Knowle
Sunday, November 08 2009, 6:08PM
“Last Bristolian
The start of your post (actually
all of it) makes no sense.
The shops on winterstoke rd are still open no matter what they are and you forgot the fast food takeaway.
The reference to epetitions is by George Ferguson and mine is a response, it's not possible to anylise the paper petitions as they are not in the public domain.
One of the shops in Duckmoor rd was a newsagent and another was a sweet shop neither closed because of Sainsbury as the present newsagents adjacent to Sainsbury, also sells newspapers and sweets.”
by The Last Bristolian, Bristol
Monday, November 02 2009, 8:36PM
“By your, there would have been no need to bulid the existing Sainsburys, which came after the closure of the majority of factories.
The "shops" that you refer to are, a mobile phone shop, a sandwich shop, a wholesalers for electricians, a newsagent whose premises suggest he has no incentive to invest in them - and a surf board shop.
The shops on Duckmoor Rd were put out of business by the nearby superstore, they are simply TOO close, unless people in that part of Ashton have chosen to go hungry!
I'm still looking for YOUR reference to epetitions in your previous post here.”
by Richard Lane, Knowle
Monday, November 02 2009, 8:21PM
“The last Bristolian
If you had read the post's properly you would have seen that the references made were to the epetition, not the ones in the shops.
There are clear pointers which indicate who is signing the petition.
As for the petitions in the shops it's obvious that anyone signing them would be a supporter of those shops by their very presence in the shop.
Using my knowledge of the area, the reason Duckmoor Rd shops closed is the same as lot's in North St closed, that reason is Wills Tobacco factory, Colodense and Mardons all closed their factories in the 70s and 80s Taking with them a lot of customers.
I do note that the shops adjacent to Sainsbury's are still open, so that blows your argument out of the water.”
by Rob, Hanham
Monday, November 02 2009, 1:37PM
“Gelly,
Urinating in the streets you say, I¿ve been going down AG for 22 years and have NEVER seen a Bristol City fan do that.
I find you insulting frankly!”
by The Last Bristolian, Bristol
Monday, November 02 2009, 9:12AM
“Richard Lane - Most of the petitions were left in shops, and even today, females, more than males , do the shopping. Hence there being more female signatures.(if a first name rather than an initial was given)
Nowhere on the petition form does it ask for occupation so how you'd know "people who are obviously students" for example. You're making it up.
As someone connected with the neighbourhood "for over 40 years" - Perhaps you'd explain to us what has happened to the 2 rows of shops on Duckmoor Rd, which found themselves as close to Sainsburys as North Street will be when if a Superstore gets built.”
by Richard Lane, knowle
Sunday, November 01 2009, 9:10PM
“After only just reading this rubbish spouted by George ferguson I thought I'd redress the balance.
If you analyse the No Tesco petition which he obviously has not done, you will find that it is signed by lots of females, people that are obviously students, junior members of families.
The petition has been organised and supported by predominantly professional people and it appears that they have promoted their petition in the schools and colleges where some of them work.
It has the support of less than ten percent of the areas of Bedminster and Southville which it claims to represent.
So obviously it is not representative of the area Berate and Mr Ferguson claim that the majority are against the supermarket plans.
As for the claim that most of the people signing the pro store petition are from outside Bristol. Anyone with any sense knows he is just trying to deflect from the overwhelming support for the plans by suggesting that people from North Somerset or South Gloucestershire are not really part of our greater Bristol community and worthy of a say in the areas future.”
by gelly, southville
Wednesday, October 28 2009, 10:28AM
“I'm not saying that I didnt expect there to be some football related problems when I moved to the area. What I'm saying is that I'm glad theyre moving because it means that the problems will stop in my area.”
by john, briz
Wednesday, October 28 2009, 9:10AM
“@ gelly.
Lots more fighting, drinking urinating in the streets in the 1970's and 1980's and you couldn't find anywhere to park a car in nearby streets even then.
When did you move into the area ?”
by Mitch, Ashton Vale
Tuesday, October 27 2009, 8:54PM
“Ali, I wasn't saying you in particular was narrow minded just the few that are against the world cup coming to Bristol.
I actually agree it shouldn't come as a price, but people should remember Bristol City have been looking at a new stadium for 10 years in several locations around the region only for our wonderful council to turn them down....watch this space!!!!
The fact we have an opportunity to host world cup matches in Bristol is the 'icing on the cake' so to speak.
World cup or not, the stadium building will likely proceed.
Yes I expect the city to be full if not almost full after the games, don't forget we could possibly host a quater final with 30m people watching on TV with facts about our city being talked about all over the world.
Once the games have finished and gone to the larger stadiums like Manchester and Wembley, the fans zones will remain open and also people may stay and use Bristol as a base and explore surrounding areas like Weston Super Mare and Bath for example.
It's a great chance to boost our city in to the world picture, mlets not lose it if we had it in the grasp of our hands!”
by Ali Robertson, Southville
Tuesday, October 27 2009, 2:09PM
“No I'm not. I can't see how the figures add up and it was a genuine question.
Mitch gave more info, for which thank you. I'd be more thankful if he didn't tell me I was narrow-minded for asking a question but there we go. I had a look at the SA schedule and the action is in the smaller cities for 4 or 5 matches for between 9 days and 2 weeks (from first match to last); do we really expect the whole city to be full for 4 weeks? (I'd obv like the WC to come here if it's coming to England. I wouldn't think it should come at any price though.)”