The Moy's End development and the ongoing property issues at Peterborough United have been highlighted nationally following an article in The Guardian by award winning investigative journalist David Conn.
To read the full article please follow the link below:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2006/10/25/posh_fans_wary_of_pitfalls_on.html
The following is a letter sent to Cllr John Peach by The Posh Supporters' Trust on 14th October 2006.
Cllr John Peach
Peterborough City Council
Town Hall
Bridge Street
Peterborough
PE1 1HG
Dear Councillor Peach
We refer to your letter published in the Evening Telegraph on 11 October.
Whilst we appreciate your attempt to provide clarity, your letter regrettably neither fully clarifies the situation, nor reassures us on the matter of the sale of the football ground. It does not address the two key issues, raised by us, that worry many supporters of the club and should be of great concern to Peterborough City Council. Like you, we have no doubt that the provision to buy back the ground, if it were offered for sale again, would still apply and that the covenant over the use of the ground still obtains. Our concerns relate to the sale that took place; these were not addressed in your letter.
The first key issue is that the correct procedure was not followed. The Conveyance of 1 April 1955, referred to in your letter, is clear and unambiguous, and we believe that it was intended to be exactly that in order to protect the football ground. We quote the relevant wording directly from it:
"If......the Purchasers [Peterborough United Football Club Limited] shall desire to sell the property comprised herein.....the Vendors [Peterborough City Council] shall have the option of repurchasing the same in manner and on the terms following....the Purchasers shall make an offer in writing to the Vendors to sell the property aforesaid....."
There had to be an offer in writing and we were told in a letter from Michelle Grove, Solicitor to the Council, that as far as she could ascertain no letter was received, adding: "Since there was no formal offer in writing, the procedure envisaged by the Schedule to the 1955 Conveyance did not apply". If true, this demonstrates exactly how critical the letter was to the whole process.
The second key issue is whether the correct procedure was followed in the decision not to re-purchase or to openly discuss a re-purchase. The six-month period granted to the City Council in the Conveyance was undoubtedly set for a good reason - to give the council a significant period of time to consult and consider the options available. The period between the Gillian Beasley's meeting at Peterborough United and the letter to the club saying that the council did not wish to exercise the repurchase option was just four days. It is difficult to see how a decision taken hurriedly and secretively by part or all of the Executive (after a discussion with the late former leader of the City Council) could be considered to be a fair appraisal of the value or the implications of such a significant opportunity for the city.
Thus on such an important issue possibly only one city councillor knew what was happening. In other words, almost the entire city council, plus the club's supporters and the population of Peterborough, were unaware of this and so could not give their views. Even now we do not know the basis on which the decision was made.
We believe that we should approach the Scrutiny Committee of the City Council and ask it to examine the issues of procedure that we have raised in this letter and previously. Furthermore the Committee should also examine what redress may be available to Peterborough City Council as the injured party in his situation. We hope that you will support this proposal.
In our view the provisions of the 1955 Conveyance were carefully designed to prevent exactly what has happened, namely the secret and hurried sale of the football ground without proper scrutiny.
Yours sincerely
The Board of The Posh Supporters' Trust: Peter Lloyd (Chairman), Barry Bennett, Richard Bellamy, Dave Colbert, John Henson, Keith Jennings, Paul Little, Paul Mitchell, Walter Moore, Peter Williams.
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The Posh Supporters Limited is registered with the Financial Services Authority as an Industrial and Provident Society. Registration number: 29533R.
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