Mayor of London approves Saracens' Copthall plans (From Times Series)
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Mayor of London Boris Johnson approves Saracens' Copthall plans
5:24pm Wednesday 22nd February 2012 in News
Saracens' plans for Copthall Stadium
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has waved through plans for Saracens Rugby Club to relocate to Copthall Stadium.
The plans were referred to the Mayor’s office for approval after Barnet Council’s Planning and Environment Committee unanimously gave its assent for the move earlier this month.
The Premiership rugby team plans to redevelop the Sixties stadium into a 10,000 seater venue which will be used for 16 home matches a year.
Saracens chairman, Nigel Wray said: “We are obviously delighted with the decision from the Mayor’s office, which puts us a significant step closer to reviving Barnet Copthall Stadium and creating a vibrant sports hub for the local community.
“The new stadium will provide both a real home for Saracens and a hugely improved venue for athletics in the south east. It will secure the future of the highly successful Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers and offer great facilities free of charge to local schools.
“The benefits of our proposals have been recognised by much of the local community, including sports clubs, community groups, schools and local residents. It would be fitting in Olympic year to deliver a centre of inspiration, aspiration, ambition, health and community wellbeing achieved through sport and education.
“Copthall will, we promise, be a genuine community stadium and we will continue to work closely with the local community and make Copthall an asset that we can all be proud of.”
The club is still waiting for approval from the Department for Communities and Local Government before its plans can be realised.
Comments(35)
OhWiseOne
says...
5:42pm Wed 22 Feb 12
Mr Reasonable
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5:49pm Wed 22 Feb 12
saracenman
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5:51pm Wed 22 Feb 12
nw7resident
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6:00pm Wed 22 Feb 12
Cheers.
It SHOULD be allowed - and commonsense prevails.
Grey Haired supporter
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6:05pm Wed 22 Feb 12
DannyMan
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8:02pm Wed 22 Feb 12
HarryF
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9:20pm Wed 22 Feb 12
The Commercial Property Developers whose plans for a retail park and thousands of flats are surely on ice awaiting submission;
Barnet Council, which will get lots of revenue from the new Council Tax, Business Rates and Parking streams;
The handful of Saracens fans who live near the Stadium.
Losers will be:
The thousands of amateur sports people (golf, football, gym) and recreational users whose names will not be down and who certainly will not be coming in;
Local residents, whose lives will be paralysed along with the tiny streets that will be blocked at weekends and at any other kind of event;
Saracens fans who can't walk/cycle to the ground i.e. the vast majority, because public transport is horrific.
A great precedent. Let's sell off all Green Belt, the NHS, and put income tax up to 90% for anyone earning less that £50,000, whilst scrapping tax completely for those earning over £1,000,000.
The small people are all NIMBYs anyway. Who cares what they think.
saracenman
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10:03pm Wed 22 Feb 12
All your comments are nonsequiturs
Bazster
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10:03pm Wed 22 Feb 12
nw7resident
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10:10pm Wed 22 Feb 12
You are absolutely right of course - this investment of £18 million into our borough in these incredibly difficult economic times - and the safeguarding and upgrading of the stadium for the community for the future at no cost to the Barnet Taxpayer - is indeed the end of our entire universe as we know it!!!!!!!!
For goodness sake ....
I won't bother to go over the gaping flaws in every single aspect of your utterly depressing and totally inaccurate diatribe, because I've already done it SO many times before.
I shall just leave you with your half empty glass to stare at, whilst I go and fill mine and look forward ....
saracenman
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10:32pm Wed 22 Feb 12
Are you aware that Copthall has been clsoed recently as the state it is in?
Of course not you live in "Nimbyland"
Lollybear
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12:22am Thu 23 Feb 12
DannyMan
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5:50am Thu 23 Feb 12
Prestwick
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9:34am Thu 23 Feb 12
But then I realised how this is going to happen, that Copthall WILL be revived for the benefit of all and not just the few.
This is fantastic news for Barnet and for London!
HarryF
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1:29am Fri 24 Feb 12
DannyMan
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9:50am Fri 24 Feb 12
Toucan
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10:59am Fri 24 Feb 12
And you honestly think there will be an Asda built ?- more likely a Waitrose
caramelcow
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3:20pm Fri 24 Feb 12
Mr_Growser
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1:06pm Sat 25 Feb 12
saracenman
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1:38pm Sat 25 Feb 12
A real NIMBY you have been exposed for what you a are a complet killjoy.
nw7resident
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6:50pm Sat 25 Feb 12
Mr Growser, I'd just like to clarify, before I report that quotation from your ridiculous post - are you actually accusing Saracens of bribing the Mayor and the GLA here? If so - you are way, way out of line. This looks like awfully like libel to me. It is certainly defamatory.
Prestwick
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8:54am Sun 26 Feb 12
At the end of the day this is a huge £18 million investment in North London and the legacy it will leave will be one of sport, of fitness and of confidence in the next generation here in Barnet.
It most definitely WILL be allowed! :D
Mr_Growser
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7:02pm Sun 26 Feb 12
I will and can also say that councillors who claim to support the Green Belt, or the Mayor for that matter, make rather a big thing of it and then let Saracens' scheme through are hypocrites. When like John Hart you get yourself photographed just before the last Council election at Copthall claiming you'll oppose more building there, and then you turn up at the Planning Committee (see Barnet Bugle video) endorsing this monstrous development that seems to me fair comment!
That sort of behaviour certainly ought not to be allowed - but sadly, it is.
nw7resident
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8:32pm Sun 26 Feb 12
So your point was actually that Saracens have already invested a great deal of money in this proposal. Tell us something new. Plans such as these and all the consultations DO cost money! Of course they will have paid consultants. They'd be idiots if they didn't. If you want a decent plan, you have to have people who know what they are doing putting it all together! As for the 'teams' of people who knocked on my door - it was one of the guys from their office and one of the players, introducing themselves and explaining what this was all about, so that it could be a two way communication process, answering questions and giving contacts if there were concerns. If they hadn't made themselves available, then you would have been the first to critcise for them not having consulted. Yes there is money behind the proposals - including £10 million being put into this out of Nigel Wray's own pocket. Big deal. We benefit. We get Copthall except for a couple of weeks of the year for our community. So thank you South African Investors, thank you Mr Wray, thank you Saracens.
As for the councillors who endorse this scheme ... You are entitled to think them hypocrites in your opinion. I completely disagree. Thank goodness they had the commonsense - or John Marshall might have been proved right when he predicted we'd all look back and think they were 'plain daft' for NOT approving it.
Prestwick
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9:30am Mon 27 Feb 12
The people who went door to door were paid a pretty penny but they weren't consultants rather actual Saracens players actually going out there to talk to local residents about the stadium. I echo NW4resident in saying that if none of these players had done any of this you Mr Growser would have been first to howl in anger about it.
You castigate Saracens for spending money on a consultation and yet would castigate them anyway if they had not done so!
Yet again the attempt to raise the spectre of the evil corporate machine swallowing up green belt land has been thwarted.
£18 million (£10 million of Nigel Wray's own cash) is being invested in Barnet and North London and by god it most definitely IS being allowed! :D
Prestwick
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9:32am Mon 27 Feb 12
Mr_Growser
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10:37am Mon 27 Feb 12
My point was - and is - that there is little chance for those who support the Green Belt, ordinary people who care nothing for rugby, the have-nots if you like, against the have-yachts (h.t.Rachel Johnson). Those who grovel at the feet of the super-rich will come to rue the day they supported this grandiose and unsustainable scheme. It ought not to be allowed!
nw7resident
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12:22pm Mon 27 Feb 12
1. Cheap shot at Prestwick.
2. There have been months and months of opportunity for those who support the greenbelt to make their case - with the result that the initial plans were substantially changed. So 'ordinary people' (whoever they are!) could have their voices heard. And they did. Very effectively and impressively, as it happens.
3. Again you miss the point totally. This is not about rugby. This stadium will continue to be a multi-sports and multi use community facility. And you are generalising ridiculously when you say that rugby fans are 'haves' rather than have nots.
4. No one is grovelling.
5. The only unsustainable scheme would be the if the community had to somehow find the money to afford to keep this stadium in a usable state. It needs large sums spending on it for major repairs - it is literally falling to pieces. And we aren't just talking about the over a quarter of a million pounds every year in maintenance costs.
If we don't do this, "future generations will think we were just plain daft!" Of course it should be allowed...!
saracenman
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1:21pm Mon 27 Feb 12
Yet Saracens are willing to put in £20m to support and still the NIMBY'S complain!
Mr_Growser
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1:46pm Mon 27 Feb 12
DannyMan
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5:57pm Mon 27 Feb 12
saracenman
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6:04pm Mon 27 Feb 12
"it was in good shape" are you insance
nw7resident
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6:24pm Mon 27 Feb 12
He has also confirmed that he hasn't actually been to Copthall for a considerable time, if he can assert that 'it was in good shape a couple of months ago!' or maybe our definitions of a month are considerably different?? It may be subjective of course - but it certainly isn't my idea of 'good shape!'
Mr Growser - Rugby is not about making profits. I have tried to explain this to you on many occasions, but you can't or won't accept this . No-one in their right mind invests in a rugby club to make profits - The directors at Saracens have lost money every season for years - but they love the club and they love the game, so they just keep on doing it. What Saracens have said they want - over and over again, is to minimise their losses rather than turn the club into a money making entity - and that is a different thing entirely. By having a small ground, promoting season ticket sales and preventing the situation they had at Watford, where anyone could turn up for any match, knowing they could get a ticket on the day - then supplementing that with big crowds for the Wembley games, that is what will happen.
Nobody wants anyone to release land around Copthall for development - and you are scaremongering by suggesting that is the case. This is simply ensuring that what is already there will last for another 50 years and continue to provide a much valued community asset. The greenbelt status is still firmly in place. No-one can build anything there without going through extensive consultation, as this has proved - and no-one locally would want that to happen - myself included.
Prestwick
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9:22pm Mon 27 Feb 12
I think NW7resident answered what few points Growser raised so I'm just going to go off and revel in the fact that it most certainly WILL be allowed! :D
HarryF
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3:28pm Tue 27 Mar 12
"Bring on the rugby if we will also get athletics, football and other sports..."
Are you referring to the many hundreds of amateur footballers whose access to their pitches will be terminated? Do you have any idea how anti-football these condescending moneymen are?
Do you know how many months of the year the 8-lane athletics track will be 4 lanes (effectively useless for practicing for competitions)? This will be the end of the gym, too, since it will be inaccessible on whichever day of the week Sky/Saracens choose for the match to be played.
@Toucan - clearly not a local - Waitrose have a nearby store already. It was built on brownfield land.
The ASDA will be for the densely packed coffin-flats as Copthall becomes Colindale North.
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