I wonder if Balfour Beatty want to give back some money they managed to precure from the people of Wakefield...
[urlhttp://www.wakefieldexpress.co.uk/news/business/business-news/firms-make-milliions-after-stake-in-mid-yorkshire-hospitals-pfi-scheme-is-sold-offshore-1-6876749#.VC6yxST_I9Q.twitter[/url

But yet the mid-yorkshire hospitals are crippled with debt and laying people off, how can this be so if PFI schemes are that great for us taxpayers. Definitely seem to be great for the likes of Balfour Beatty and their partners. I bet the top brass of both sides made a nice little earner out of this.

See York council have tonight given support and some financial support to the City of York community stadium and we have the WMDC stating that the City of Wakefield Community Stadium is nothing to do with them.

The decision by York can only help our political aims.

Seems Calderdale council are worse than WMDC, they have been illegally charging for roadside parking since 2008 :0

They only have to support one team - York City Knights.

They don't have to find financial help for three - Castleford, Wakefield and Fev.

Aye - there's the rub. Support the Cas stadium with money and we'd be up in arms (and probably Fev as well). Support the Trin stadium with money and they'd be up in arms (and probably Fev as well). They could split any money 3 ways but then there wouldn't be enough for any of them. Do nothing and you'll get criticism from all three. I wouldn't like to be in the position of the decision maker.

However (there's always a "however"icon_wink.gif there's a lot more support that could be given without it being in cash, be it pressure, planning permission issues, publicity, facilitating links with other funding partners/bodies etc. It could be that this is going on in the background but we don't know. With the past history of the project (I'm reminded of Cllr Box turning up in a Cas shirt when we were lobbying them) it's natural to assume that they're doing nothing, but we may be wrong.

Could have got the 106 sorted properly to start with.

If WMDC are skint they can still offer support to a community facility run by an independent trust not a club. The we have 3 clubs has been an easy cop out by the WMDC for years, plenty of towns/Cities have more than 1 sporting club but still offer help support and sometimes finance for the best facilities for its clubs and public. I don't think we expect WMDC to build the community stadium but a bit of support wouldn't go a miss. The sports facilities for a City the size of a Wakefield are a disgrace so you would think the local authority would do all they can to help sports faculties.

I am not disagreeing that it'd be nice for them to help all three clubs out. But it's getting harder and harder to justify it when you see what a state the district is in. However, what may be interesting to see is the amount of money other councils get compared to WMDC. And I'm struggling to think - certainly in rugby league - of two teams in the same council area bar Bradford perhaps and Hull and they will get loads of money from covering the east.

It probably doesn't matter to them but aren't Wigan and Leigh under the same council? Swinton and Salford?

Kirklees have Huddersfield batley Dewsbury. Wigan council built Leigh sports village then we have the inept WMDC

You are making the classic mistake of confusing capital spend with revenue spend. Putting £2m into a community stadium will have no effect on the number of care homes, libraries or other social care support mechanisms. It is capital spend and they can own a share of it if they like and hence still show it on their capital asset register!

What chance have we got when the leader of the council is a shareholder in the club that would suffer the most if we got a new stadium?

The cynical ones amongst us, never thought that we would move to a new ground before Cas and that it would be 2 new grounds or none.
Of course, the gaol posts have moved, with regard to stadium requirements in SL and who knows, we may eventually see something for our club but, after so many knock backs and false/broken promises it is difficult to believe that anything will happen.

That is a myth.

No it most definitely isn't. He has admitted it previously, but acknowledged that he'd only bought the minimum value out of curiosity!

Fair do's TRB - I'll trust your right on that one.
I still don't think WTW fans should feel threatened though on such a trivial thing as owning a few shares.

I don't think that its ownership of just a few shares that is the issue, it's more about even-handedness and large projects of this type usually need the people at the top to drive things forward and occasionally bang heads together.
Can the people of Wakefield rely on the council leader to do this or, will the project succeed in spite of who is in power ?

Whilst I still take great issue with a number of issues to do with WMDC, the columns need some balancing:

1 They have upheld the newly imposed clause which states that any housing on BV can only go ahead when the club is in NM playing.
2 Subject to enough people signing the e-petition we are confident that they will grant us ACV status on BV
3 We would not have planning at all at NM without them a) passing the plans themselves and b) funding the PI
4 They provided finance to allow the detailed plans for NM to be drawn up.

Now I'm not saying that they should be given a halo, but they are also not the devil incarnate.

He's declared them on his register of interests...

[urlhttp://mg.wakefield.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=156&T=6[/url

Hardly the loch ness monster!

Yep - fair enough. As I said earlier - I stand corrected.

you might feel differently if the boot was on the other foot

I do not trust one person on the council

Watching LUFC at Rotherham on Friday night and their new New York stadium would suit us down to the ground.

Oakwell's a lot nearer though