This comment was left in response to The Telegraph‘s coverage of the recent THFC leak whining about how the costs were spiralling for the project and, Levy’s frustration with the perceived lack of assistance the expansion of his PRIVATE BUSINESS was getting from the government et al.
A new White Hart Lane is probably a good idea, but the way ENIC have gone about this project has been thoroughly depressing.
At the last count, the estimated bill was £800million. That’s going to be one palatial looking Cheese Room, goys and girls.
Here’s what Alan Stanton had to say…
What a football fantasy world Mr Levy and his pals inhabit.
“Main economic driver for North Tottenham” presumably means driver for the profits of the football club. As for “regeneration”, yes the stadium building is getting higher and larger. But the notion that this is an unalloyed benefit to Tottenham people is dubious to say the least.
However, the most curious statement from Mr Levy, in the leaked begging bowl email, is about the banks. He tells us that: “Other than simply wanting to see the money is in place, it is understood the banks also want assurances over the redevelopment of the local area around the new stadium.
The first bit I get. A very rich football club has made investment plans and asked people for huge loans. So investors want to know their cash is not just safe but will be reliably coining profits.
But apparently for this to happen Mr Levy’s business needs super-generous “support” from the Mayor of London and Haringey Council. (At a time when like many councils, Haringey is sacking staff and shutting down vital frontline services.)
Well, yes, Mr Levy, any “business plan” stacks up with a big enough public hand-out. And if someone else pays for the so-called “infrastructure” – the public transport and other facilities Spurs needs to move its customers to and from his private money making enterprise.
But why does Mr Levy say that: “the banks also want assurances over the redevelopment of the local area around the new stadium?” Perhaps because somebody is looking to make significant profits but not just from a stadium?
We need to look at what is planned for the Council-owned housing land near the stadium site. Land which is now red-lined by Haringey Council for demolition and social cleansing.
One chunk, currently called “Love Lane Estate”, is now referred to in meaningless estate agent-burble as “High Road West”. The plans are to demolish it completely to provide “a walkway” for Spurs fans, to and from a new White Hart Lane Station – naturally renamed “Tottenham Hotspur Station”.
But a far larger nearby area of existing housing has also been “red-lined” for future demolition and dislocation by Haringey’s planners. (Apparently a local franchise of Douglas Adams’ Vogon Constructor Fleet.)
This land is currently being valued at next to nothing because it happens to be occupied by Tottenham residents. But it will get a huge “uplift” if those residents are cleared off and displaced.
As for Cllr Clare Kober, Leader of Haringey Council, eager to work “in partnership” with Mr Levy, she lives in an altogether more comfortable and salubrious area of the borough. For some odd reason Claire hasn’t proposed all the marvellous benefits of building a football stadium in or near her neighbourhood.
I can’t think why.
Alan Stanton
Tottenham resident and former Labour Councillor.
