Southend not our peers

United's reserves lost yet again (they haven't won since November 3rd) this evening against Southend United. A first half goal from Neville Roach was enough to win the game for the Shrimpers, for whom Leo Roget was the only player United supporters would have recognised, being the player erroneously dismissed the last time the two teams met in a Nationwide League fixture in Southend. Didcot Town goalkeeper Alex Deadman made his debut on trial for United and he did reasonably well and wasn't at fault for the goal. Kelvin McIntosh had an assured game in the centre of defence and Jamie Cook was the best United player on show, although no-one looked like getting on the scoresheet at all during a dull second half. The official attendance was 75, but Rage Online made the headcount 83!

Further Pentith analysis

The Pentith and British Rail Properties Board case in the end came down to two issues regarding the sequential test (see Monday's news item). Firstly whether Oxford City Council excluded the Oxpens site from the sequential test in its application to the Minchery Farm planning application. The Council said that the Oxpens site would not be available for two to three years which, it was implied, was too short a time for it to be excluded and that, by not including it and permitting nine screens at Minchery Farm, this was therefore limiting the Oxpens application to just the nine screens they had originally applied for, although they later indicated a desire to increase to twelve screens. OCC's argument was that it was overall capacity, not the number of screens, that was the issue and this was part of the orginal Oxpens appeal on visual impact.
Secondly, the Council's report did not mention local area sites. Pentith/BRPB implied that this meant they had been disregarded. OCC's barrister argued that the local officers knew the area and knew that there were no sites available in these areas. OCC's argument was that planning is not precise and that planners must be given a degree of flexibility or every disputed planning application will end up in court. He acknowledged that Point One had been dealt with in error by the Council but that they had achieved the same result by other actions. In other words that a breach of PPG6 did occur but that it was not a fundamental breach and therefore the court should take no action because if PPG6 had been followed the same result would have been achieved. Whether or not his argument was convincing enough we should know by Friday, and possible late tomorrow afternoon.
On Central TV today Firoz Kassam gave his first explicit public announcement that if the judgement went against him he would seriously consider walking away from the club. Whether or not he really would walk is a bluff that hopefully won't need to be called, but it means that for the time-being at least FOUL and other OUFC supporters still need to be vigilant and ready to spring into action.