Sale of Southend United to Justin Rees and his consortium

[danbowen]

Courier parked outside Ron Martins house. Typically used by legal firms to sign papers at speed. There will be a lot of them for a deal of this size.

Anyone else able to verify this? Not to say Left Post isnt being genuine but we have had so many new posters come on here and say random stuff.

 

[Whispering Bob]

Christ another? Sep 30th must be the most prominent Shrimpers birthday date... one hell of a party if the takeover is announced!

Lots of SZ parents out there seeing the New Year in with a bang!

 

[Somerset Ex-TTB]

The conditions and phasing of the planning permission says he can’t build on it without the stadium. Not an opinion, fact

What’s to stop Rat building a cheap white elephant of a stadium that is never used by SUFC or anyone else for a really cheap amount. Temp stands, no facilities etc. Smaller footprint, no parking, no fan concourse. More houses in its place. Could do that for a few million I would have thought.

Conditions of planning have then not been broken.

 

[Holy Joe]

The conditions and phasing of the planning permission says he can’t build on it without the stadium. Not an opinion, fact

Conditions of planning can be changed.

Now this would be a major change so if that is possible I don't know. But if it is then that allows him to start FF and then apply for new permission to add housing where the stadium should be.

 

[dusterman]

What’s to stop Rat building a cheap white elephant of a stadium that is never used by SUFC or anyone else for a really cheap amount. Temp stands, no facilities etc. Smaller footprint, no parking, no fan concourse. More houses in its place. Could do that for a few million I would have thought.

Conditions of planning have then not been broken.

Very good point.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

I think we need to think this through.

I don’t see how a guarantee is possible- both from a practical basis and a legal basis

How do you’ guarantee’ how people will vote on a planning committee?
How do you even know who will be on that committee at the time of any vote ( people move jobs, die etc)
How do you “guarantee “ you will give PP on something you may not have even seen yet, and if you have seen it have you had time to run the proper checks.

Can the council legally give a written guarantee of how they will act in the future- to me this sounds impossible.

Happy to be corrected by anyone on the above.
I can see that the council can ‘indicate’ what they would do, our MP’s can indicate that the secretary is state will not cal in the plans but
They can’t ‘guarantee’ it

If you take a step back and take away the fact we all SUFC supporters then I’m not sure how happy I would be with the council doing a behind closed doors deal with a property developer with dubious morals.

I conceded that something like this ‘must’ be happening, but I just don’t see how. Ron must be taking on an element of risk

There’s no upside in holding onto the club because it’ll just go bust. Whereas there’s upside in doing a deal in principle with the Council. This is all upside for Ron.

 

[E for B and Billy Best]

What’s to stop Rat building a cheap white elephant of a stadium that is never used by SUFC or anyone else for a really cheap amount. Temp stands, no facilities etc. Smaller footprint, no parking, no fan concourse. More houses in its place. Could do that for a few million I would have thought.

Conditions of planning have then not been broken.

Pretty much what he wanted to build us, then.

 

[bazzashrimper]

What’s to stop Rat building a cheap white elephant of a stadium that is never used by SUFC or anyone else for a really cheap amount. Temp stands, no facilities etc. Smaller footprint, no parking, no fan concourse. More houses in its place. Could do that for a few million I would have thought.

Conditions of planning have then not been broken.

He doesn’t have planning for that. He has planning for a 21000 seater stadium that will cost upwards of £40m.

Good luck getting anything else through the council

 

[Tommy2holes]

He doesn’t have planning for that. He has planning for a 21000 seater stadium that will cost upwards of £40m.

Good luck getting anything else through the council

I disagree.

The council has been supportive of new housing, particularly as they stand to inherit a good chunk for their own purpose.

The housing situation, particularly social housing in Southend is dire.

If Ron were to add another 400+ properties where fossetts were to built and give SCC a chunk of them alongside the existing agreement, then they would be mad to refuse.

It's not often that councils get a chance to get their hands on properties to obtain rent.

It's a win, win all round and I'm sure the council would have been sounded out to gauge opinion.

With the seaway development in ruins, the Queensway development looking like a non starter, this is big opportunity.

 

[Sleaford Shrimper]

There are two major housing developments where I live in Lincolnshire where the construction of a new primary school, medical centre and recreational facilities were included in the planning consents. In one case the building of houses is pretty much finished but no sign of the other facilities in revised plans for the rest of the development. In the other, more than 150 houses, a convenience store and a big care home have already been built and sold and foundations sunk for as many more houses but no sign of the new school, medical centre or recreational facilities. Unless there is a clause in the planning consent for FF that says the stadium must be built before the houses, Ron could build and sell all the houses and then claim lack of cash or need for the stadium. The City Council is not going to order the built and sold houses to be demolished in that scenario. Ron then puts in a revised planning application for houses on the land earmarked for the stadium which, in those circumstances, is likely to be approved. Property developers use this kind of stunt all over the country.

 

[turkishm]

The conditions and phasing of the planning permission says he can’t build on it without the stadium. Not an opinion, fact

This is true but no club. Were does the whole deal stand then.

 

[TJC]

What’s to stop Rat building a cheap white elephant of a stadium that is never used by SUFC or anyone else for a really cheap amount. Temp stands, no facilities etc. Smaller footprint, no parking, no fan concourse. More houses in its place. Could do that for a few million I would have thought.

Conditions of planning have then not been broken.

Sounds just like Withdeane stadium when Brighton used to be there. What a tory they have had!

 

[West Stand]

I disagree.

The council has been supportive of new housing, particularly as they stand to inherit a good chunk for their own purpose.

The housing situation, particularly social housing in Southend is dire.

If Ron were to add another 400+ properties where fossetts were to built and give SCC a chunk of them alongside the existing agreement, then they would be mad to refuse.

It's not often that councils get a chance to get their hands on properties to obtain rent.

It's a win, win all round and I'm sure the council would have been sounded out to gauge opinion.

With the seaway development in ruins, the Queensway development looking like a non starter, this is big opportunity.

You simply get around the fact that FF is on Green Belt. If it were a case of an authority in effect just bypassing National Planning Regulations then it would happen everywhere.

At this point in time I would say it would have been close to 100% certain that planning wouldn’t have passed without 1) The stadium being built on FF and 2) Huge numbers of Council Management homes to be built on the RH site.

Councillors may well want to build just houses on FF but no stadium al most certainly would mean rejection

 

[kentblues]

There are two major housing developments where I live in Lincolnshire where the construction of a new primary school, medical centre and recreational facilities were included in the planning consents. In one case the building of houses is pretty much finished but no sign of the other facilities in revised plans for the rest of the development. In the other, more than 150 houses, a convenience store and a big care home have already been built and sold and foundations sunk for as many more houses but no sign of the new school, medical centre or recreational facilities. Unless there is a clause in the planning consent for FF that says the stadium must be built before the houses, Ron could build and sell all the houses and then claim lack of cash or need for the stadium. The City Council is not going to order the built and sold houses to be demolished in that scenario. Ron then puts in a revised planning application for houses on the land earmarked for the stadium which, in those circumstances, is likely to be approved. Property developers use this kind of stunt all over the country.

All too true- however that’s not down all to the developers is it? More a complete lack of enforcement coupled with accepting too many these things as scheduled after the main build is complete…the surprise is they’re surprised when developers then try and wriggle out of their commitments.

In the case of FF the residential builds should be phased. Before each phase starts, a tranche of the £20m should be required to be paid. If not the council needs to take immediate enforcement action to prevent that phase of the build starting.

 

[West Stand]

There are two major housing developments where I live in Lincolnshire where the construction of a new primary school, medical centre and recreational facilities were included in the planning consents. In one case the building of houses is pretty much finished but no sign of the other facilities in revised plans for the rest of the development. In the other, more than 150 houses, a convenience store and a big care home have already been built and sold and foundations sunk for as many more houses but no sign of the new school, medical centre or recreational facilities. Unless there is a clause in the planning consent for FF that says the stadium must be built before the houses, Ron could build and sell all the houses and then claim lack of cash or need for the stadium. The City Council is not going to order the built and sold houses to be demolished in that scenario. Ron then puts in a revised planning application for houses on the land earmarked for the stadium which, in those circumstances, is likely to be approved. Property developers use this kind of stunt all over the country.

The phasing as set out in the planning consent would almost certainly head that off. Most of the enabling work would have to be completed in phase one

 

[West Stand]

There’s no upside in holding onto the club because it’ll just go bust. Whereas there’s upside in doing a deal in principle with the Council. This is all upside for Ron.

A question that I would ask you is quite simply Is this

Is there any upside for RM if the club goes bust ?

 

[kentblues]

You simply get around the fact that FF is on Green Belt. If it were a case of an authority in effect just bypassing National Planning Regulations then it would happen everywhere.

At this point in time I would say it would have been close to 100% certain that planning wouldn’t have passed without 1) The stadium being built on FF and 2) Huge numbers of Council Management homes to be built on the RH site.

Councillors may well want to build just houses on FF but no stadium al most certainly would mean rejection

A number of very large developments have happened in the UK on green belt and with not even the hint of a football stadium. If SCC and Gov/SoS want to let FF happen without a football stadium it will happen. Ultimately it’s a political decision.

 

[shrimpereeee]

A question that I would ask you is quite simply Is this

Is there any upside for RM if the club goes bust ?

Yes.

He no longer has the cash drain of the football club.

RH is still under the control of his family and has significant development value.

He and his family also retain FF and will no doubt explore all opportunities to develop the land.

Therefore a win, win, win situation for him.

 

[danbowen]

Has anyone seen that Companies House has recently been updated (2 days ago) with a confirmation statement and a huge list of every single shareholder in the club. Guessing this would be needed for a sale?

 

[hlane17]

Has anyone seen that Companies House has recently been updated (2 days ago) with a confirmation statement and a huge list of every single shareholder in the club. Guessing this would be needed for a sale?

You need an up to date confirmation statement yearly anyway. I reckon it's just late paperwork as usual, rather than indicative of anything.