I see the Bradford Dulls are harping on about a new stadium again, find out on tuesday apparently, if the council decide they have lots of dosh for this, maybe the Cougars should ask " can we have some please "

They would seem to have some sort of Svengali hold on the council.

Anyhow, we'll get nowt.

Reasons?

1) We are in Keighley, and only fit for paying rates.
2) Succesive boards at Keighley have seen fit to roll over and have their tummies tickled by the £20k a year sponsorship that was formerly passport to leisure, and I dont reckon this board will be any different.

In fact, I was stunned by how badly informed they are on the matter.

I wouldn't take any decisions on BSV as set in stone though, the funding will take some raising in the current climate.♠

One thing that strikes me as ironic is the leader of the council who ultimately decides everything and responsible for holding Keighley back as a town plus the cougars receiving a pittance is none other than Chris Hopkins. He is the conservatives candidate for Keighley for the general election. Not exactly an appealing option in light of his role and way cougars are treated by the council.

Just out of interest , what exactly would you want Bradford council to do for you or provide you with ?

If every Cougar fan agreed to vote in a bloc for the candidate who promised us help with Cougar Park would it help (as long as they're not BNP)?

Keighley's considered by many political pundits as one of the key marginal seats in a general election because it has high turnouts (69.1% last time) and when another party gets in here they usually win power.

To be treat somewhere equally with Br*dford would help.

This is the second time in the last 10 years they've pumped money in to that dump.

Our council tax is funding the aspirations of a club that we absolutely detest to the tune of £19m.

To be honest we're not expecting a nice shiny new ground like Leigh have but a million or two towards a new main stand would be nice.

In an ideal world, nothing. I dont think the councils should be supporting "professional" sporting organisations.

In the world where Bradford Bulls/Northern have had around £8,000,000 over the years, I would like to see some form of pro rata treatment.

That goes for City also.

Our council tax goes to Bradford, same as all the bulls fans; we're in the Bradford area, same as Bulls - so how come we don't get help, like the bulls do for Odsal? Seems only fair...

Bradford council to p off out of Keighley =#FF0000edited, be careful

Mick W. we have no chance of getting money for the ground from Bradford Council.
I know what your getting at.
Come to think of it, there's two holes in Bradford now. 1)Odsal 2) The shopping centre that as none gone
ahead.
Bradford is just one big hole.

Bradford Council are holding Keighley back as a town. It's about time we had our town controlled by itself and not another place 11 miles away.

Apparently there's around 70,000 in Keighley according to Wikipedia? That's a really big amount and I don't think there's a bigger area apart from Bradford itself in the Bradford Council Area. We should be able to hold our own without them.

Start the revolution.

Not wishing to pee on anyone's fire but are the council going to contribute anything to Bulls proposed new ground?

I thought the council were demolishing Richard Dunn centre and building a new sports facility as part of the Odsal development, but Bulls have to find their own funding for their stadium. I think the benifit the Bulls will get is they will not have to pay for the infrastructure, access and parking at the revamped venu.

I think the council are using some of the money from the sale of Leeds/Bradford airport.

Don't know how true this is - does anyone know??

Freedom for Keighley!!
What we gonna call ourselves, the 'People's front of Keighley', or the 'Keighley People's Front'?
What have Bradford ever done for us???

They gave us a rugby team to take the wee wee out of.!

With the bulls losing again, how long before they ask us cougars to help them out

Although it might be to taxing

I'm starting the Keighlean Popular Peoples Front [size=150SPLITTER[/size

I don't think there would be much opposition to a break away.

When the referendum for the new town council was held approx 10 years ago, this was the outcome:



As a gauge of public opinion, I think it's a pretty fair one.

The highlighted bit - that's not really true, you know (not the dump bit, obviously...the pumping money in bit...).

No money was "pumped in". All that happened was that the Council paid the club the net present value of what they were already contractually committed to pay (in terms of ground running costs and other annual contributions) up to 2019. No new money. In fact, with hindsight considering the current very low interest rates, the discount factor used was likely too high anyway - tough on the Bulls...life's a bitch, eh?

In return, the council got out of the escalating annual costs of operating and maintaining the ground, passing all the risks there from the Council Tax payers to the Bulls (who clearly underestimated the consequences).

Whether or not the original 1986 Agreement was fair or otherwise, to say more money was "pumped in" is either erroneous or disingenuous.

Remember too, the reversionary clause - most of the settlement has to be repaid to the council, on a sliding scale over time, if the Bulls move out of Odsal.

Incidentally, you are also TOTALLY wrong about the £19m (I may have said that to you elsewhere, too, if you post on TotalRL?) That money is predominantly from the sale of the airport, and is for the whole OSV project. Indeed, as I understand it none of that money goes into building a stadium.

If there was, say, a proposal to build a new Cougars stadium and leisure centre (to replace the Victoria LC) and other combined sporting facilities in a mini-village site say near the end of the new road off Marland Road or similar, part-funded by the council, as a council tax payer (and Aire Valley resident) I'd strongly support that.

Ok fair point, but don't you think that money from the sale from a publicly owned asset that was beneficial for the whole area is being used to fund something specificly for Bradford is wrong? Where's our share?

It's things like this and the development of the city centre which are the reason so many Keighlians absolutely despise anything to do with Bradford.

Given that I live much nearer to Keighley than to Bradford, on your wider issue you are preaching to the choir mate. And don't even START getting me going about the city "centre". If I was dictator, places like Keighley and Bingley and even the landed gentry of Ilkley would have their own town councils back.

But sadly (or maybe fortunately...) I am not. And as regards the Sporting Village project, if one IS to be build in the Brad Met artificially-created area, surely you would agree it needs to be in the largest (by far) centre of population, and close to what passes for half-decent road links?

But as for where is Keighley's share, totally agree. Be nice to see some serious capex in the Keighley area, and I suggested one such option earlier. A decent road to the bloody motorway would likely be of much more use to Keighley (and me!) though, since the current nightmare journey is a massive disincentive to inward investment, is it not?

I agree with you regarding Keighley's abysmal transport links, it needs serious money spent on access to Bradford and to the M65 at Colne for that matter.

I certainly wouldn't begrudge Bradford having a facility along the lines of the superb John Charles Centre for Sport in Leeds albeit with a Super League Standard ground. I think every city should have one.

If we got just a fraction of what the council are prepared to put in for Odsal towards a new main stand at Cougar Park I think the majority of people would be highly delighted