The Great Coates Rip Off!

By: Bill Osborne
Date: 17/01/2003

THE new stadium developer and the club have been given notice by the NELC Council that they must sign the 106 agreement or planning permission may be cancelled.

When the Planning Committee meets today, they may set a recommendation that this agreement will have to be signed by the end of February.

Up to this date the 4 main parties in the stadium complex, Grimsby Town FC, N.E.Lincs Council, Sutton Estates, and Chiltern Developments have not signed any legal documents designed to safeguard Great Coates as a village and other items intended such as the provision of landscaping and open spaces, controlled car parking and preventing off-site parking on the Willows estate and providing a park and ride bus service.

Now that is usual practise in developments of this nature and all involved are aware of that.

But both the developer and the club have claimed that some of the provisions in the draft agreement are "onerous"

To me, not fully versed in council speak and particularly the N.E. Lincs Council, having read the full draft agreement, I would be more inclined to say that some of the provisions are "draconian" and it appears to me that the council are lumbering the developer with some of the services that the council should be providing.

Certainly, the council have a duty to protect the Great Coates village and its inhabitants who have invested in their properties and have a right to expect the council to protect their investments.

I do not believe that these provisions are the ones that are worrying the developer, but looking at the cost of some of the conditions, one can see why the project is on hold until major investors are found.

N.E. Lincs Council are demanding a heavy price for their change of mind in granting the stadium planning permission and it places further doubt on the clubs ability to get the project off the ground.

The full draft agreement is now added to this article to enable you to judge for yourselves. It is a fairly long agreement but after wading through the initial legalese, it becomes more interesting as you go on.

There are some errors and omissions but nothing important has been missed. Some tables have been re-created but the data in them is as per the agreement.

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