Barnet FC accuse Barnet Council of failing football in Barnet

Today the Chairman of Barnet Football Club, Tony Kleanthous issued a statement accusing Barnet Council of failing the club. Here is his statement in full (originally printed here on Barnet FC website - http://www.barnetfc.com/page/LatestNews/0,,10431~2441820,00.html)

The Barnet Eye fully supports Barnet FC. We believe that Barnet Council has behaved in an atrocious manner towards the club. Association Football is the national game. Barnet FC are a successful club and it is atrocious that their role in the community is not valued and cherished. The Barnet Eye has no arguement with Saracens Rugby Football Club, but we believe it is unfair to seemingly favour a club with no ties to Barnet over our local team. The local Conservative party in Mill Hill have shown a complete disdain for football, opposing an application for a pavillion and clubhouse for Kentish Town FC (ave attendance 30) at Chase Lodge playfields, whilst backing a 10,000 seat Stadium proposal for Saracens Rugby Football Club.

Barnet Council are also trying to force football away from various locations, such as Mill Hill Sports Club and have sold off many playing fields for redevelopment. It is time for Barnet Council to start treating our local clubs with the same respect they treat the multi millionaire backers of some of the schemes forcing well loved local facilities out. Please sign the petition to Save Mill Hill Sports Club (at the top of sidebar), once you have read this blog
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Barnet chairman Tony Kleanthous has broken his silence about the much publicised multi-million pound Saracens relocation plans for Copthall Stadium in a statement issued by the club today. He accuses Barnet Council of contravening the Local Government Act which states that the council MUST obtain best value for any site it disposes of in the borough.
The statement also accuses the council of using delaying tactics, failing to resolve assurances made to Barnet FC in recent years and making it impossible for Barnet FC to operate at Underhill. The council have told the club they do not have any land for it to develop a stadium ... even though they were secretly agreeing to go ahead with plans for Saracens to relocate.
"It is quite clear they want to push football out and move rugby in", says the hard-hitting statement. "Despite Barnet FC having more than 120 years of history as a community club in the area, they seem to want to clear us away".
The chairman reveals in the statement that the football club had an application for a new stadium at Copthall almost ready to go before the Planning Committee but the council would not provide the club with the land assurances needed. The club now realises this was because they had already committed to give the site away to the Saracens, who want to take over Barnet FC's home turf.
The football club was not advised in advance of the Saracens plans, which appeared out of the blue in a Press announcement during last season, despite ongoing discussions with councillors and officers over the years about the long standing Barnet FC wish to build a new stadium in the borough.
Saracens have been offered a virtual freehold for the multi acre stadium site at Copthall for free; Barnet FC have been asked for more than £200,000 just to renew the lease of their 5 - acre cricket club site to the south of Underhill.
When the current Saracens plans were revealed last season, the council asked Barnet not to object to the planning and promised to deal with outstanding land issues at Underhill, including the car park area and access and lighting for Priory Grove whilst finding an alternative site for the football club, which has been in Barnet since 1888. However, the issues at Underhill were left unresolved and the club were then told that NO site was available for them.
The previous Barnet FC application to move to Copthall was called in and turned down by the Minister (John Prescott) ten years ago after Barnet Council and Ken Livingstone, leader of the Greater London Council at the time, had given approval. Copthall was kept on the agenda in recent months during ongoing talks between the club and council but the council constantly refused to back a stadium for Barnet FC on the site.
"Our supporters should know what's going on", said the chairman, "Life has become very difficult since Mike Freer left as Leader of Barnet Council to become an MP. To compound matters we also have Saracens regularly approaching our sponsors and commercial partners driving money out of Barnet FC and the local Barnet community".
In the last few months the club has sent legal letters to Barnet Council, to which they have yet to receive a full response, and have lobbied the London Mayor's Office. "The Mayor seems very well informed and has a good grasp of the importance of a community based sports club like ours, we hope we can rely on his officers' intervention to prevent this appalling situation from going any further" said the chairman.
Barnet FC employs nearly 200 local people on a full and part - time basis and has 11community officers working in the borough for the community. The council have consistently attacked the club's existence since 2002 and efforts to gain the support of MP Theresa Villiers have failed to resolve the difficulties the club faces.
Barnet FC has had a volatile, even hostile, relationship with the council in recent years. This improved when Councillor Freer was the leader but the latest developments suggest that it has slipped back.
"Now the dust has settled on the new football season we feel our supporters and the community should know what is going on behind the scenes", says the chairman.

The FA - aptly named

As I am off to the cup final, I thought I'd just say a few words about the FA (never a more aptly named organisation has existed). Football is our national game. Teams like Manchester United, City, Arsenal etc have multi million pound turnovers. At Wembley, I'll have to fork out nearly a tenner for a pint of beer and a coke for my son. Replica tops cost 10 times what they would if they weren't "Official" merchandising. In short, the whole thing is a rip off fleecing hard up parents.

The other side of the coin is Youth Football. How many of the gazillion pounds generated by the Premiership comes back to local teams, to encourage youngsters to take up football? How much of it is used to save playing fields? How often do Premiership Superstars visit schools to pass on ther skills?

David Cameron and Nick Clegg could do us all a favour and put a levy of 1% on premiership clubs turnover, to be put back into grass roots football. The one thing I would insist on. That the FA didn't get a penny of it.

Anyway, I hope it's a good game. Despite being a Manchester City fan, I've always had a soft spot for Stoke City FC. When I was  a lad, my hero was Gordon Banks - I wanted to be the England goalie. They also had the mercurial talents of Tony Currie. I hope they win something soon (just not today).

Local Tories in Election Leaflet bungle

Readers of the Barnet Eye will have recently read of rather odd claims that "Lib Dems plan 500 seat stadium for Copthall Chase Lodge" from the Mill Hill Tories in a recent leaflet. Given that no local Lib Dems have a clue about any such plans, the Barnet Eye was keen to find out what the Tories were on about.

The Barnet Eye has spoken to various Lib Dem councillors and has discovered the source of the rumour. Local Tories have confused Lib Dem support for planned improvements to Chase Farm Hospital with the Chase Lodge football pitches.Local Lib Dems have spearheaded the campaign to retain and improve facilities at Chase Farm. This will ease pressure on the already overworked Barnet General hospital.

Barnet Lib Dems are happy to announce that they fully support improvements to Chase Farm Hospital. As to Stadiums at Copthall and Chase Lodge, we've seen no plans and none have been submitted for any form of planning approval. No Mill Hill Lib Dems have been involved in any schemes for stadiums (as alleged in the Tory Leaflet) or any other developments on the site and can only suggest that the Tories have got their wires crossed between Chase Farm pitches and Chase Lodge Hospital, where the local Lib Dems are spearheading the drive for improvements. If it didn't affect local residents it would be quite funny.

Is there an election coming up by any chance?
***** Update at Saturday *****
In response to a confused resident from Enfield who rather likes this blog. Lib Dems are not proposing that Chase Farm hospital be turned into a football stadium. We are proposing that the hospital services are retained and improved. Local residents may recall that the Conservative government closed Edgware General hospital (I know, I helped organise the campaign to oppose the closure). There is only one party which opposes hospital closures and stands up for the green belt in Mill Hill. That is the Lib Dems.