Parking ticket

The Iffley Leys Council meeting last night had on its agenda the issue of parking at the Kassam Stadium, with Firoz himself in attendance. Most of the debate was about the non-appearance of matchday parking restrictions on the Blackbird Leys estate. Apparently this is entirely due to a council cock-up. Responsibility for parking has recently transferred from the City to the County Council and the former has not handed over the papers to the latter, so nothing has been done for a year.

The overflow parking at the stadium is planned, but a bridge needs to be built across the stream to access the additional land. There are water voles in the stream so the bridge has to be environmentally impact-free on them, which is holding up the design. But Kassam hopes that it will be built in time for next season.

John Tanner (former City Council leader, now re-elected as a councillor) and Tony Stockford (not now a councillor, speaking from the floor) then took Kassam to task over the non-payment of the outstanding £494k to the City Council for payment for the land on which the stadium is built. This issue was not ruled out of order by the Chair (although it was not the business of the meeting) and a bitter exchange ensued, with FK losing his temper, telling the City Council to take him to court, which he said will cost half a million pounds and take two years.

To complete a bad day for the United chairman, Wasps Rugby Union Club are going to Wycombe afer permission was given last night by a Wycombe council meeting. This caused FK to issue a statement on the OUFC web site comparing local authorities and how some are helpful and others (not naming names) are less so.