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Herefordshire Council have been told the only solution to the impasse over the redevelopment of the Bulls' Edgar Street home is for them to buy the leases back and start work themselves.
Cllr. Terry James, head of the Community Services Scrutiny Committee, accused Formsole Ltd, the lease holders owned by Richardsons, of 'dragging its feet' and that the council should negotiate an early surrender of the leases with Formsole: “The council needs to be proactive, not just for the club, but for its fans, who deserve better than they are getting,”
Graham Turner had originally wanted planning applications in place for at least one side of Edgar Street by the end of 2007 but, 18 months after that date, no planning application has been made and little work is envisaged for another 18 months with the credit crunch playing havoc with building plans across the world.
The Blackfriars End has always been earmarked as first for redevelopment with the stand shunted forward towards the pitch erasing the large areas of flat land, now rendered useless by the latest stadium rules, and leaving a sizable parcel of land at the rear of the stand for redevelopment.
But those plans were put into disarray towards the end of 2007 when the Edgar Street Grid board turned down proposals to site a fitness club, hotel, or cinema on the newly available land - with the board wanting to keep those commercial developments for their own land. Graham Turner's words at the time have now proved rather prophetic:
"I realise, of course, that the Edgar Street Grid board and developers are only concerned with maximising their prime site. However what it will do is leave us with few alternatives. My fear now is that the Richardsons, who have a number of projects on the go throughout Europe, will put the Edgar Street ground redevelopment on the back burner and adopt a wait-and-see attitude. That will leave us in a state of limbo."
