madgull wrote: ↑01 Feb 2018, 22:45Wait, so Harrop ISN'T Osborne's brother-in-law?
So he says.........but he also alludes to 'personal postcodes' being put on this website. Hello? You can get Clarke Osborne's 'personal' postcode from this website: https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/comp ... 4/officers
That's in the public domain is it not; and his 'personal' postcode was not, so why is he so thin-skinned about this?
Perhaps messrs Harrop and Osborne would care to come clean and give everyone their version of just how they came to be involved together in this project and if it differs from what is being said; then they can point to their version having come 'from the horse's mouth' so to speak; but no they carry on in their secretive and deliberately opaque manner so that if they feel victimised by other people's versions then they have no-one to blame but themselves.
Parker is the editor of a newspaper that allowed Clarke Osborne to say this in his paper on January 23rd without challenge: “I fully intend that we will deliver our plans for a new United stadium in this calendar year. Do I believe that there will be a fantastic scheme at the end of this? Yes I certainly do.”
So now it's gone from the club being in a new stadium in 2020 ~ that was what the Herald was telling us a few months ago ~ to him 'delivering plans' by then and yet neither Dave Thomas or Guy Henderson challenge him on this rapid change of stance. Parker is their boss; he should damned well be keeping them on their toes over this.
All this (and other slip-sliding) is resonant of Osborne's evasive behaviour over the Reading Speedway scandal and the closures of other sporting venues ~ always the talk, never the walk and yet Parker and his journalists conveniently allow him to get away with this.
On January 19th, Dave Thomas had reported Osborne as saying: "I am convinced that a new purpose-built multi-event stadium and academy, with supporting leisure activities, good road and rail communication and acres of car parking will provide the facilities and finance for sustained success and bring considerable inward investment and spend to Torbay. The Mayor and the Council are aligned in this vision and are both supportive and encouraging. So the ingredients are there, we just need to accelerate the pace and build momentum and support towards these major leisure developments." Without challenge and yet we are told by a Torbay councillor (Adrian Sanders) in the same paper in Parker's editorial that there has been no dialogue between council and Osborne. Where is the challenge from Parker over this glaring anomaly?
..........and then Parker comes out with what he makes out is 'his speculation' of a tie in with the Spires Academy and their sports field up at Quinta when all along this was open conjecture on the fans' forums ever since the whole saga began.
I don't think that's what Adrian meant, Merse. Adrian says that nothing has been put before full council to make a/any decisions on.
There have, of course, been meetings between representatives of the council, both from an elected point of view (the mayor, Cllr Haddock, et al) and from an officer point of view (Messrs Montgomery and Mowatt, for example - and, yes, I count the TDA as 'Council': we pay their salaries, after all) and TUFC, both this administration and the previous one. These have been documented over time, including one where Messrs Phillips and Balsom presented Mr Osborne as 'a consultant'. Needless to say, those public servants present knew he was no such thing.
As I understand it, nothing has yet been presented to anyone at the council or the TDA that a decision could be taken on: ie: no firm plans have been presented; no formal permissions sought. I'm told that the council's view is still that until such things are presented formally, then there can't really be any decisions one way or the other.
There are, of course, ways that the TDA and/or officers at the council could make such decisions without recourse to full council deliberation.
Soupdragon wrote: ↑02 Feb 2018, 07:45There have, of course, been meetings between representatives of the council, both from an elected point of view (the mayor, Cllr Haddock, et al) and from an officer point of view (Messrs Montgomery and Mowatt, for example - and, yes, I count the TDA as 'Council': we pay their salaries, after all) and TUFC, both this administration and the previous one. These have been documented over time, including one where Messrs Phillips and Balsom presented Mr Osborne as 'a consultant'. Needless to say, those public servants present knew he was no such thing.
A prime example of the secrecy and subterfuge that led us into this siuation ~ that and the broken word of Dave Phillips when he categorically stated at a fans forum that GI would not be the new owners of the football club; yet within a month they were!
Such cloak and dagger conduct flew directly in the face of the hollow promise to be the most transparent and open custodianship of the club ever ~ words were cheap eh?
Soupdragon wrote: ↑02 Feb 2018, 07:45There are, of course, ways that the TDA and/or officers at the council could make such decisions without recourse to full council deliberation.
An alarming expose of how democracy can be circumvented in my opinion. The need to be vigilant and keep up the pressure has never been more obvious!
My fear was that the Mayor would see their plans through. I was under the impression that while in office and as things stood/stand, he could give his permission and the council couldn't prevent him. Is this not the case now, was it ever?
Seems a complicated process or a process which could go under your nose. Perhaps osborne if he wants to be clear and open should come out and explain where they are up too and what processes there are. Not very quick to give updates on this matter is he
For your sake Mr Parker, I feel ,well, sorry actually, why ? Well because the ONLY REASON this subject of plainmoor & Mssrs Osborne, Harrop etc is being printed in your snooze paper is because you were SHAMED INTO 'REPORTING' (with tongue firmly in cheek, I may add ) the issue by myself in an email written to you (& Guy Henderson, who never replied by the way ) on 18/01/18 to which you " DIDN'T LIKE THE TONE OF " but hey Presto the actual topic that's was getting on mine & my fellow supporters wick because your paper NEVER MADE AN ATTEMPT TO ADDRESS THE ISSUES IN HAND OF THE SUPPORTERS suddenly , by miracle, or a pricked conscience ? Appeared, to a certain degree, in the paper shortly after !
These are the issues we want INVESTIGATING, it is your duty as a local rag to find out what is going on in your readership area & bloody well report ALL OF IT not just pick & choose the COSY BITS THAT FILL A FEW COLUMN INCHES.
Believe me Mr Parker, I have a few friends who are fanatical about their club, Portsmouth football club, if for one minute your papers style of reporting was administered to their plight a few years ago there would've been repercussions from their supporters I've been reliably informed.
Supporters of Torquay United or Portsmouth fc or who ever it may be deserve to have the issues they feel matter, investigated & reported on even if some questions that need to be asked are awkward.
I was also led to believe whilst listening to one of the HE PODCASTS that your journalists do not part with any cash to gain entry to games at Plainmoor, is this one of the 'PERKS' that would be stopped if too many awkward questions were asked in the wrong direction ?
I find this quote from Geoff Harrop in the article difficult to fathom. What planet is he on!?
"We are sitting at the bottom of the league. Results have not done us justice." Really Mr Harrop!? How many funny fags do you have before watching the match? Look at the goal difference! After one match where luck has gone against you, you might say that the result was not just, but after 31 games the table doesn't lie.
"If we were getting the results on the pitch would we be getting the stick we are getting now?" Obviously not you muppet because it would mean that you were doing a decent job instead of being completely inept.
Talk of a new stadium is merely in someone's imagination and we know whose. I recall somebody at Tuesday's TUST meeting saying that if the designated site is Nightingale Park it will take at least three years to sort out the drainage problems.
Southampton Gull wrote: ↑02 Feb 2018, 11:19
My fear was that the Mayor would see their plans through. I was under the impression that while in office and as things stood/stand, he could give his permission and the council couldn't prevent him. Is this not the case now, was it ever?
I'm told that if the mayor makes a (any) decision, others councillors have the ability to 'call it in' which means that it gets referred to the Overview & Scrutiny committee. They then have the power to refer it to full council. That process has always been the case.
As it stands, schism among councillors, including a divided local Tory party, means that ANY decision the mayor makes is likely to be called in. Even - in my opinion, anyway - if he makes the right decision so far as we're concerned.
To be fair to Dave Phillips and set the record straight when it was stated on here earlier today that: "Messrs Phillips and Balson presented Mr Osborne as 'a consultant'"; Dave Phillips has told me that Osborne was introduced to the mayor as a potential owner of Torquay United who reckoned he could deliver the new stadium that the local council desired ~ not as a 'consultant'
I know for a fact that Dave Phillips personally lost north of £46K during his involvement as chairman of the football club; a classic case of letting his heart rule his head as he didn't want to see the club go into administration or even liquidation in December 2015 and with it certain relegation from the National League due to the ten point deduction which would have followed.
At the time of the GI deal, Phillips had described them as 'not the best of bed-fellows' to the forum audience and had three other prospective sales on the table all of which dropped out when due diligence was carried out.
They were the 'Chinese' consortium linked to the town through a Babbacombe hotel; A Midlands restaurateur and an American business based in Texas..........they had all faded into the background when the moment of truth came and extra finance had to be taken on as the club's £20K bank overdraft had been exhausted. That's how desperate it had became and that's the brinkmanship that was required.
The 'consultant' that he Phillips board used was Pete Masters, not Clarke Osborne and it was Masters who brokered the deal whereby Osborne accepted the liabilities of the club in exchange of the old board's shareholding as they had used his capital injection and were in no position to repay it.
merse btpir wrote: ↑02 Feb 2018, 20:15
To be fair to Dave Phillips and set the record straight when it was stated on here earlier today that: "Messrs Phillips and Balson presented Mr Osborne as 'a consultant'"; Dave Phillips has told me that Osborne was introduced to the mayor as a potential owner of Torquay United who reckoned he could deliver the new stadium that the local council desired ~ not as a 'consultant'
I know for a fact that Dave Phillips personally lost north of £46K during his involvement as chairman of the football club; a classic case of letting his heart rule his head as he didn't want to see the club go into administration or even liquidation in December 2015 and with it certain relegation from the National League due to the ten point deduction which would have followed.
At the time of the GI deal, Phillips had described them as 'not the best of bed-fellows' to the forum audience and had three other prospective sales on the table all of which dropped out when due diligence was carried out.
They were the 'Chinese' consortium linked to the town through a Babbacombe hotel; A Midlands restaurateur and an American business based in Texas..........they had all faded into the background when the moment of truth came and extra finance had to be taken on as the club's £20K bank overdraft had been exhausted. That's how desperate it had became and that's the brinkmanship that was required.
The 'consultant' that he Phillips board used was Pete Masters, not Clarke Osborne and it was Masters who brokered the deal whereby Osborne accepted the liabilities of the club in exchange of the old board's shareholding as they had used his capital injection and were in no position to repay it.
46k loss, how must Thea be thinking losing 3 million . He's a bookmaker he can recoup that easily. However I do applaud him initially for taking the club over. It's a poisoned chalice and it shouldn't be.
