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Last night (Tuesday May 4th) FOUL held its third public meeting in Oxford Town Hall. FOUL had invited the leaders of the three political parties represented on Oxford City Council to speak. The meeting was a chance for John Tanner (Lab.), Corrina Redman (LibDem) and Mike Woodin (Green) to explain their parties position on Oxford United's survival, the new stadium and the planned leisure developments at Minchery Farm. Coming two days before the local elections this was an ideal time to hear what the local politicians had to say and question them in some more detail.
FOUL was already aware that the coucillors were unable to comment specifically on the multiplex planning application yet to be submitted by the club, but the councillor's presentations and the following Q&A session was very revealing about the various parties true position and understanding of the issues involved.
Not surprisingly, each spokesperson started off by declaring their parties full support for Oxford United and their wish to see the club survive.
Mike Woodin spoke first for the Greens and explained why the Green Party were against out of town leisure developments as a point of principal. Mr Woodin explained how he understood that Oxford was in need of modern leisure facilities and also how the Green Party were supportive of the land deal between the council and the football club.
Whilst he was prepared to say that he would not personally be contacting the Government to have the application called in Mike Woodin stopped short of saying the Green Party as a whole would not be doing this. FOUL and obviously a number of questioners from the floor believe the Green party may still be a major threat towards the succesfull planning consent for the multiplex cinema.
Corrina Redman and Jackie Gray spoke for the Liberal Democrats. They too said they fully supported the negotiations between the council and the football club but were very keen to stress the need for wider consultation on the multiplex plans before any decision could be made. Jackie Gray showing a remarkable lack of understanding of the situation stated that if the application were to be called in it would not mean the death of the football club but just a delay. This was despite Firoz Kassam being widely quoted after the recent Littlemore meeting as saying "if the application is called in the club will not survive the delay." In response to a question on this she suggested that if called in the application could be dealt with in about 6 weeks.
John Tanner as usual didn't miss the chance to do a bit of electioneering for the Labour Party. A very positive and well received speach stresed the need for urgency from all parties and he pledged that if Labour were still in control of the council come Friday (as is expected) the first thing he would do is "get together with council officers and make damn sure that this application doesn't get called in"
Steve Hanks addressed the meeeting on behalf of the FOUL committee and asked everybody present to go home and write a letter to their MP. "If you only do one thing to save Oxford United then do this" he said. "If Oxford United does die and you didn't write you'll never know whether you could have made a difference. If the football club does survive and you were one of the people who wrote to their MP then you will know that you played a part in the survival of the club we all love" he continued.
FOUL distributed a leaflet at the meeting with the local addresses of Oxfordshire MPs and some suggestions on points to include in a letter to the MPs. Click here to see a copy of this flyer.
FOUL met with Shaun Woodward the Conservative MP for Witney recently and a press release fom Mr Woodward on Tuesday evening showed the results of this meeting. Shaun Woodward explained how he had written to the Tony Banks, the Minister for Sport, asking him to use his influence with the Football Licensing Authority to give Oxford United more time to finalise the planning process before demanding evidence of the new stadium being started. This could give the club some vital breathing space if (as is expected) the planning process on the multiplex extends into the beginning of next season.
