Ground development

[mawallace]

So, in the week we lose Topley, Grayson leaves, we now get an e-mail saying the development is on hold for 12 months. How long is the development to take. Our ground is really looking second class and tired

[Diatribe]

So, in the week we lose Topley, Grayson leaves,

One could easily be excused for opining that you consider the departure of the aforementioned to be a monumental loss for ECCC.

[Valentines Park]

Flats obviously aren't selling.

Developers must have seen Essex coming.

[mawallace]

So, in the week we lose Topley, Grayson leaves,

Sorry that was not my intention!

One could easily be excused for opining that you consider the departure of the aforementioned to be a monumental loss for ECCC.

[vim]

A 12 month delay will give plenty of time for the exact plans to be revealed.

This season taking seats out of use at the river end and forcing everyone into a smaller space must have been conditioning the members for what they will be getting eventually.

[bwildered]

Perhaps the club could negotiate with the developers for a walk through by the side of Cricket school behind fitness club towards Meteor Way for next season if no building work is to take place .

[Mog]

So, in the week we lose Topley, Grayson leaves, we now get an e-mail saying the development is on hold for 12 months. How long is the development to take. Our ground is really looking second class and tired

On hold......for 12 months? That's odd, I could have sworn it had been on hold for eight years. If I recall, the Club bragging at how wonderful the redevelopment would be, how lucky the mere members and supporters were to have such a forward-thinking and enlightened Committee.......
Can you provide an overview of the email, and what it does say? This being No Change Essex, it will be worth more looking at what is left out of the statement.
This is shocking incompetence and illustrates the utter shambles the Club currently is, as opposed to its default position of merely mediocre.

[alji]

Who was the e-mail was sent to? I'm a member but haven't had one.

[Crisp]

This is a huge concern and surely a detailed explanation should be made as members have made sacrifices in return for a false dawn.

Frankly having travelled the country along with Grace Road (of which is about to have some restoration) we have the worst ground facilities in the Country and after this years fiasco now on and off the pitch, I feel members will vote with there feet.   

[vim]

I am not surprised.

When I saw the advert for the flats in an estate agents window in Chelmsford. I thought these do not appear to be selling.

Members will not vote with their feet as their is a surprisingly high number who will put up with anything. Although the group gets smaller every season.

[IlfordEagle]

Interestingly enough if the development is delayed for a year the Olympic Stadium will be off & running for WHU & Essex could easily play their T20 &RL games there thus Chelmsford could take even longer - that's assuming we still harbour hopes of using the OS.

[brazilianglen]

Like everything surrounding Essex CCC it is difficult to get to the truth

A local newspaper article a couple of months ago said:-

''Century Tower only has three apartments unsold, with many homes snapped up in the remaining three blocks. The other towers, which will be complete by 2018, have yet to be given names, but when they are, it will be going along with the cricketing theme.The site is still a hive of activity as builders put the finishing touches to construction, which is due to be completed by September''


I expect that many in Century Tower (ie Block A) were bought by investors and some may be trying to offload them at a profit?

Certainly no other developer around Chelmsford appears to be holding back - there seems to be new buildings going up everywhere

[essexfan548]

You can see on Right Move how few are actually sold or under offer:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?searchType=SALE&locationIdentifier=POSTCODE^1036276&insId=2&radius=0.0&minPrice=&maxPrice=&minBedrooms=&maxBedrooms=&displayPropertyType=&maxDaysSinceAdded=&includeSSTC=true&_includeSSTC=on&sortByPriceDescending=&primaryDisplayPropertyType=&secondaryDisplayPropertyType=&oldDisplayPropertyType=&oldPrimaryDisplayPropertyType=&newHome=&auction=false

[jimmy]

After the pompous announcement that the cricketing part of the development was to be completely redesigned as the club didn't want to go into debt in order to have a new ground, Im wondering if wewill even have a ground in the future. We have a derailed development that has stuttered and stalled from day one, a highly dubious plan for umpteen flats that appear to have one side hanging over parkway and the other at short mid off, no definitive plans for any of the cricket related facilities and a further undermining of members benefits with parking charges and a first come first served car park to be shared with every visitor to the city. By the time the club has gone bust  thanks to the fat controllers (aka Sheikh East's) hubristic scheme  we will have no county championship and cricket will be T20 only. Then it will be just one  pragmatic step to using the Olympic stadium for an East London francise and ECCC will be a thing of the past.

[pablo]

Given all the opprobrium aimed by many at Grayson, Saville,Foster and Irani, already, I am amazed that our Chairman is still in place and seems to avoid a lot of the flak. Here is someone whose enthusiastic endorsement of Giles Clarke - he of the 'Stanford follies' and the carving up of world cricket in the hands of England,Australia and India- says little for his judgement. His other statements about winning not being important and foreseeing cricket becoming 'just like baseball' also seem symptomatic. He has presided over the worst decline of Essex cricket ever and has been at the helm for most of ground development fiasco. Isn't it time he was asked politely to fall on his sword ?