uk_martin

The Birmingham Speedway announcement http://www.speedwaygb.co.uk/news.php?extend.35871 - published on the BSPA web site, states that "subject to the necessary paperwork being completed by the British Speedway Promoters Association" - A clear onus therefore on the BSPA to tidy up loose ends. And yet on another BSPA web site page - http://www.speedwaygb.co.uk/championshipannouncements19 - we get the quote that R&R states above which puts the onus on Birmingham and Eastbourne to sort their lives out. A classic case of "it's not us, it's them". Bearing in mind that the Birmingham announcement was on 3rd December, and Eastbourne's was well before that, how much longer do the sports blessed administrators need to sort all this out? One would assume that until this is all done, there won't be any fixtures published, and if it all goes sour, then it would be too late now for Birmingham and Eastbourne to reconsider National League speedway, so that will be 14 riders left in the lurch, not to mention all the fans of the two teams concerned. What a mess.

Interesting to read somewhere that there are efforts being made to establish a Baltic League with teams from Russia (St P'burg) Finand, Estonia and Latvia. Possibly even Lithuania, (can't remember for sure) But this will be at the very junior level, almost semi-professional at best. From what I remember from the article I read, they tried this last year, I think, but it fell flat on it's face, but they are going to try again this year. Where there's a will, as they say...

To the first point, I guess a lot will depend on what is considered to be in the public interest. Bear in mind that one decently attended concert at a live music venue will attract more people and younger people than the average crowd at many speedway stadiums. To the second point, there are moves to encourage public and sustainable transport and to discourage private motoring. The City Centre will have a Carbon Curtain drawn around the Middle Ring Road in 2020, so that anyone heading to or through the city centre wil have to pay £10 for the privilage. The focus of this new "green agenda" will be on "moving people, not moving cars". So who knows what the noise situation from the roads will be in a few years time.

Potentially...I've heard of cases (including one in Digbeth, I think) where people have moved in close to pubs that had regular music events, which could just about be heard outside of the pub, and the same legal precident was used in the stopping of the live music. It's not just speedway that this affects. Whatever he was, the fact that it went to the House of Lords, means that local County Courts have a binding precedent to follow in the future. Future cases won't need the same level of financial clout unless it goes to appeal. Not sure if Legal Aid is available for these kind of claims either. If it is, anyone suitably clued up could be a "threat". But at least it'll be some while away. It'll be 2022 when the Commonwealth Games take place, so it will be 2023 before the accommodation has been converted to house families etc. So another 4 or 5 years to prepare.

Firstly, we are taking about Civil Law, specifically the Tort of "Nuisance", not Criminal Law, so "laws" on Noise Polution are not in question. Secondly, none of the above gets around the legal point which was made by the judges ruling, that moving into an area where there is a pre-existing noise "nuisance", shouldn't prevent you from taking legal action against it. Those who think that they can come and "change the world for the better" have that element of legal support now. And as this is a precident set as far up as in the House of Lords, it is binding on all lower courts too. And don't think that an appeal to the European Courts will change things, the Brexit voters cut off that avenue for the future.

Indeed, a corner of the car park could be lost to facilitate the Aldridge Road diversion and widening.

One of the Artists impressions from the Council documentation. You can see the stadium in it, and you can see how close a lot of living accommodation will be. Imagine this projection to be taken from above and behind the existing bus garage, looking westwards towards the One Stop Shopping Centre. Out of interest, the plan is that Aldridge Road that currently goes straight from the stadium to the "Crown & Cushion Roundabout" will be diverted around the stadium. Basically the road that's there now, will be widened and made dual-directional, meeting up with Walsall Road, near where the fly-over currently stands. Walsall Road will be "straightened out" to follow the route of the flyover, but at ground level, straight to the Crown & Cushion roundabout. The railway station and the shops adjoining it, and those over the road from it are also subject to compulsary purchase, so expect a new rail / bus interchange station to be built there, and the eyesore slum shops to be a thing of the past. These things are not shown in this drawing though.

To be honest, I don't think that it's an issue that's really hit the public imagination. My own guess is that most people will welcome the demolition and redevelopment of what is in all honesty an eyesore, and although the athletes village / housing scheme has received planning approval, other connected matters are still in the process of getting approved. There are small groups of residents who have objections to this thing or that...e.g. the domolition of the fly-over that separates the stadium from the One Stop Shopping Centre, and the introduction of extra bus lanes, but there's a general feeling that no matter how much people jump up and down about their little gripes, this thing is going ahead, so let's make the best of it. There is a pubished Compulsary Purchase Order Zone, and the Stadium is not part of it. Full details can be seen here - https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/info/20054/planning_strategies_and_policies/1838/perry_barr_commonwealth_games_athletes_village_and_wider_regeneration_compulsory_purchase_order I'm aware of the Deed of Covenant that "protects" the sporting purposes of the land that the stadium sits on, but just recently, a doctors surgery has been converted to an Islamic Academy, another independent "faith school" has been built on the old IMI factory site, and there is a planning application in the system for Perry Barr Police Station to be demolished and a mosque built in its place. There are even rumours of the Seventh Trap pub being demolished and a mosque being there too. Join the dots to see which way this is panning out into the future.

The Commonwealth Games Athletes Village, which will be converted post-games to a mix of social and owner-occupied homes, has a couple of game changing aspects to it. As Brian Buck mentioned, the stadium has two main roads around it at the moment, but with the plan to divert the Aldridge Road, and with the use of the current 2nd hand truck dealership as new housing land will come the prospect of "full time" housing being literally "over the road" on two sides of the stadium. This is a step change to the current housing situation, where Wellhead Lane, Nash Square and the Perry Hall estate are all further away and have obstructions between them and the stadium, which shields the noise to some degree. We have to be realistic, and with the prospect of 1500-odd new householders coming into the area, you can't hide from the prospect that one of them may be an elderly person in need of peace and quiet, or that others don't find speedway to be "in their culture" and would rather have a super-mosque built there. Sadly the legal precident set in the Mildenhall case a couple of years ago makes it clear that coming into a neighbourhood with an existing noise issue, doesn't prevent you from complaining about it and getting it dealt with. Unlike Mildenhall, where the problem went away when the complainants house mysteriously burnt down, there will be more than one house to contend when the new Perry Barr redevelopment is finished.

Has everyone already forgotten the legal case that Mildenhall got embroiled with, and eventually lost?

Why wasn't Speedway included in SPOTY this year, people cry. And why should it? I didn't hear any references to Womens Rugby, Rugby 7s, Basketball, Ice Hockey, World Rally Championship, or any number of other sports that fans of those sports will be crying about, the same way that speedway fans cry about the lack of speedway. So why is speedway so special, other than it's "your" sport? I've not found the statistics for this year, but if Geraint Thomas (the winner) got as many votes this year as Andy Murray got in 2016, then that will amount to about 250,000. In 2016, Mo Farah, was in 5th place and still got over 50,000 votes. Now lets do some sums. There are 20 speedway teams in Britain, pulling in an aggregate of probably under 15,000 paying customers every week. That's how widespread interest in British Speedway is. Even on speedways big day out in the sun, at Cardiff, there are less people in the Principality Stadium, (and that includes the Foreign Legion of fans from Poland, Sweden Germany, etc), than there were voters for Mo Farah. Until the numbers for speedway improve, can you honestly blame the BBC for not taking it seriously? Let's get a reality check. Apart from the old faithful, nobody else cares about speedway in Britain any more.

Birmingham are already down to the die hards thanks to the NL. The problem with Birmingham's die hards is that at their age, they are dying out. It needs the Championship to get any chance of replacing the old fans with new. Rocks and hard places and all that.

And in breaking news, Semion has posted something on the Brummies thread without calling us Yam Yams

Probably one of the reasons why negotiations took more than 5 minutes to complete, and the decision making process on whether or not to accept, took even longer. Just a guess, like.

Surprise, surprise, James Shanes is the 7th signing.

Yeah, I asked too. Nobody seems to know, other than Ipswich have his contract...or so I was told. Aparently Ipswich work in mysterious ways their riders to sign.

I asked about Michael Hartel a few days ago and was told that he's already an Ipswich asset. Who knows though, they might kindly donate him eh? Would like to see him at Perry Barr though. Every time I've seen him at Gustrow and Teterow, he's been very impressive, and definately the pick of the crop of current German youngsters. He was showing a clean pair of heals to Jack Smith and Adam Ellis there over the last 2 years, so the talent is there, it'll just be a matter of learning about new tracks.

If you were British Speedway's Insurance Company, what premium would you charge for Adam Roynon's Accident and Illness insurance? Would he even be insurable knowing that a claim is almost inevitable?

Some of us remember Charles Wright wobbling around Workington and trailing half a mile behind the others in 2007/8, thinking "would he be in the team if his brother, James (a former Birmingham asset) wasn't there too"? And look at him now.

IF they did that, their web site wouldn't be able to withstand the volume of traffic.

Nico Covatti Possibly Ben Barker too, although I can't fully remember how that dispute with Mick Horton over Barker ended up.

It may be an intersting academic exercise to see which team "owns" it's top end strength and how many teams have their top riders "vulnerable" to the perils of doubling up if a Premiership team has first call on them. This could be a bit of a leveller if the "best" riders are unavailable to some teams.

Thanks. No surprise with Lee Kilby's connections at Swindon that Zach would be at Birmingham. For the same reason, I won't fall over in surprise if James Shanes became our 7th signing.

Welcome back to the Zach Attack. (could turn this into a hippity hoppity rap crap thing lol) Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't he a Lakeside asset, who then became a BSPA asset when Lakeside ceased operations? So is there a chance of Zach also becoming a Brummies asset now? I guess we'll find out when the full story emerges later in the day.

Part of the fun of sport is that occasionally question marks get turned into exclamation marks. Let's see what next year holds in store.