“Calm down dear, I'm starting to worry for your health.

Is there any answer to my previous suggestion of 'Why don't you offer some constructive advice for a change and suggest a new site for Rovers to play in'. Hysterical rantings that are solely negative will get you absolutely nowhere and does your cause a lot more harm than good.

Where has this myth that Rovers fans live in South Glos come from?

I am totally sick and tired of the never ending negativity and complete and utter lack of any constructive dialogue from ROSE and their minions. The underlying fact is that Rovers are here to stay, and the best solution from all parties (and I admit that the club has been slacking on this) is for constructive dialogue to take place to make the re-development and its after effects as smooth as possible for all concerned.”

“Gary of Kingswood, and Steve of Clevedon (NOTE the addresses) (among others)
Firstly you may NOT call me Jane, because you do not know who I am, and you have no business trying to second guess who correspondents are, and whether or not they are anything to do with ROSE. Secondly, whoever your local authority , you do NOT live in Horfiled, and THATs why you are unqualified to comment on what WE should have to put up with. Thirdly, ROSE have HUNDREDS of local members, many of whom (and could name names! )are diehard Gasheads. However, that does NOT make them support a redevelopment in a densely populated area.
Fourthly, your arithmetic is false. The season is not 52 weeks of the year (thank God), and secondly, you have ommitted the RUgby matches, which cause as much traffic mayhem as Rovers (although not as much anti-social behaviour)
Only the week before last, we had Rovers sceduled for home games on the Tuesday and the Saturday (OK so the Tuesday one was rained off, but it was still on the schedule) and a rugby match on the SUnday.
Rovers fans forget there are TWO teams sharing this ground, but those who live there cannot. FINALLY, to say the football club is not responsible for its hooigan element is only partially true. If Rovers were not playing, the hooigans would not be ther. SImple. So, dont go around telling us we are NIMBYS. Get Rovers to sell the Mem ground and buy land in S. Glos where there is plenty, and away from people's houses . Or perhaps, as I said, get one in Kingswood, and see how you like it. Perhaps someone would point out another club that is proposing a new stadium (PLUS student flats etc.) in the middle of a crowded residential area? yOu will not find one outside London, (which has excellent public tranport links to all its grounds.)”

“Having been at the game at the weekend as a leeds fan studying in Bristol, I can say that the resisdents of horfield regardless of the damage and vandalism (which coinsidently is totally out of order) is on a large part just as much the fault of their local pubs as it was the police or football fans. In this case the pubs DO NOT have to let their doors open to droves of football fans and serve them alchol in excess all day, but they do this because they are a bussiness and the custom they recieve on match days provides an invaulble income, to not just the pub industry but also food retail outlets such as the numerous cafes and bakerys up gloucester road. The resisdents of horfield who moan about the desrubtion to there saturday afternoons are the same group of people who assume rover left the memorial satdium would be on at the council for the loss of local bussiness in the area.

Now on the same point the poilicing at the weekend was total stupid, and lacked any kind of direction or tactic, shown in the use of the police helicopter, which is utterly pointless, the police were there purely for show at the weekend, I could have arrested 5 people with the amount of stuff that happened.

Now to moan that Gloucester raod was at a stand still is an absolute joke, the road on a match day or not is regularly at a grid lock, coming home from university can regularly take up to and over an hour or 2, its just an excuse for people to have a moan and a groan because they have absolutly nothing better to do with there time.

try asking all your local bussiness what they think of the football being at the mem stadium, I bet they will happily take the good with the bad.”

“Well said Gary and Peter John,the anti-football brigade like nothing more than to hear of trouble associated with football(I'm yawning already) I was expecting by now to read about never having trouble at rugger matches(yawn again)The ROSE band lost fair and square in the Stadium regeneration planning application............so get over it!!”

“Dear Local Resident (or can I call you Jane?) I too live in Kingswood. A large part of it, including where I live, actually comes under the jurisdiction of BRISTOL CITY COUNCIL, so I have every much right as you to comment on this.
I think that 'miseries' may have been a tad harsh, I much prefer the more truthful NIMBY. Let's turn this round then dear residents. Why don't you actually suggest a suitable location for Rovers to build a new stadium? It would make a very welcoming change to have constructive ideas for once! Personally, having had to travel to Bath for a decade and have supoprted applications by Rovers for at least two proposed developments for stadia in South Glos (Mangotsfield and Stoke Gifford), I can not see anywhere other than the Mem for the club for the foreseeable future. The simple reality is that the Mem will never be again a ground that will only host rugby friendlies a dozen or so times a year. That is a fact and it really is high time (13 years and counting) that the NIMBYs learned to live with Rovers and not continually living against them. The club are no more responsible for a minority of their supporters than, say, Whitbread are for violence in town on a weekend night.

Finally, as for the weekly / twice weekly comment, this season Rovers will play a total of 23 games at home, as all the cup matches were away. By my simple maths on a 52 week year that equates to an average of one game every 2.26 weeks!! ROSE would do well to try and establish some credibility by sticking to facts and not the continual scare mongering that only does damage to their own cause (see Rosalie Walker's performance at the planning meeting as an example).”

“As usual a S. Glos Gashead is telling the residents of Horfield we are 'MIseries', and should have a 24 hour supermarket instead. We have heard this until we are sick of it. Someone who lives in Kingswood, and that is where the Gas fans mainly come fron, has ABSOLUTELY NO RIGHT to tell US what we should put up with, you are part of the problem, as you all come by car. A 24 hours supermarket would also be unsuitable. Its not either /or, it's NEITHER. Why dont you lobby S. GLos council to allow a Stadium in Kingswood, then Horfield Rovers fans could drive to YOUR streets in droves, throw cans and plastic beer glasses over YOUR walls, and stop YOU choosing when to go out or return to your home. You too could have police patrolling, Brawling hooligans, inane tannoys, incessant noise and real intimidation from what I grant is the minority of Rovers supporters
Go on, lobby for it, or stop criticizing Horfield folk for wanting Rovers to have an out-of-town stadium where ALL can access it without detriment to anyone else.”

“Too say that this is a regular occurrence is absolute nonsense.I have followed Rovers all my life and have attended the Mem since Rovers moved there.I am 66 year old,I go to every game and have never seen trouble in that time although I know there sometimes is.I agree with the councillor that some police behaved in a inappropriate manner,some fans complaining of police brutality and harassment.Those complaints came from ordinary fans,some of which were women. Most fans are well behaved ordinary folk,including women and kid's but some people will look for trouble and cause the same no matter where they are or go.This is not football related but attached to football.In my youth mass fights were a regular thing at the glen dance hall on nights when Rock and roll dances were held there.Personally I would like to see Rovers sell the sight to a major super market in exchange for a major stadium in a city edge site.Then the miseries of Horfield,this does not include all resident's, will really have something to moan about.Twenty four hour noise from shoppers.Ask the resident's of Eastville which they would rather have.”

“Jean, you are quite right, as are the other correspondents who witness the weekly (if not twice weekly) chaos and intimidation let loose in Horfield. Yes, this week was worse than usual, but, Steve, where do you live? I live 200m from the ground, and every match there is parking mayhem, residents are unable to access their STREETS let alone their homes, gangs of rowdies fall out of the pubs beofre and after matches, the helicopter distrubs our peace (especialy in the nice weather), litter fouls up the roads and the council do NOTHING to force Rovers to clean up their act! Fottball clubs MUST be held responsible for all the actions by fans in their name, and be given the bill for cleaning up after the hooligans . Why should COuncil Tax payers subsidise ,by their contributions to the costs of policing games, an activity they may not even enjoy? I dont ask them to subsidise my hobbies!
Rovers must move out Horfield, and the COuncil should assist them in this.”

“Steven,

I've seen several cars on various match days that have been vandalised and what about the incident a few years back at the Gloucester Arms? I'm sure police have loads of incidents of petty vandalism to the usual yob violence in their records that were perpetrated by Gashead fans. The Gasheads should move to an out of town location as the traffic caused by Rovers fans driving in and parking up near the stadium suggests to me that none of the Gasheads live in the local vicinity.”

“@Tyler

There was substantially more violence with Leeds scum in the middle of Bristol, and even allegedly Thornbury on Saturday - you can hardly blame Rovers for that.
I'm a City fan incidentally.”