“Many people are good at talking about what they are doing, but in fact do little. Others do a lot but don’t talk about it; they are the ones who make a community live.”
Jean Vanier
Two years after announcing plans to blow a fortune chasing a pipedream plucked from the Politically Correct drawer, cue yet another photo opportunity at Bradford Park Avenue.
The English Cricket Board (ECB) have lobbed the first dollop of cash – over £600k – at this hare-brained scheme with talk already of contingency funding for a plan so badly thought it it defies belief.
Bradford Council probably think they can’t lose, which is just as well as they keep telling us they have no money; so its slaps on the back all round and big smiles. But read on.
The council will most likely hail this as a huge commitment to local sport but what chance this level of investment in any other part of the city? I wrote to them asking how much of our money they are blowing here but – so far – zip!
Yorkshire CCC also have no money and certainly won’t be able to fund any future running costs once the ECB have vanished.
Headingley remains their priority with the stark prospect of losing its international hosting status unless expensive refurbishment happens soon. Add that to the challenge of servicing a debt of over £20m and YCCC’s commitment here can only be one of gesture politics.
But, as sport works just like politics, this won’t harm a few CVs in need of polishing up before this grand idea inevitably goes tits up.
What is inexplicable and wholly wrong – aside from this being an unnecessary and expensive folly – is that numerous sporting and other voluntary organisations are currently fighting for their lives as the Council seeks to remove discretionary rate relief and subsidised rents for such as sports grounds and community buildings.
You may ask why such these organisations should benefit from any subsidy at all and that is a fair question.
These bodies are the lifeblood of a city, run in the main by volunteers. They connect communities and provide services at a fraction of the cost any Council could, offering a diversity of inclusion and engagement.
The Council are being led by their dopey noses here by the ECB and YCCC alike simply because they are bereft of both cash and any idea how sport ticks; few would know the difference between a cricket stump and a tree stump.
Some of the hype is also patently ridiculous.
“The ambitious project to restore the venue to its former glory is a partnership between Yorkshire County Cricket Club (YCCC), the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), and Bradford Council, with work mapped out in five stages up to 2019.”
The total spend circa £5-6m is peanuts in terms of modern sporting stadia. They may think in their naivety that, for a modest sum, they get a renovated Bradford Park Avenue but who runs this going forward and who pays the bills?
The overheads here will be sky high. How will a groundsman be funded to maintain twelve first-class standard wickets? Who will secure all the nice new machinery? Who will they call when a pipe bursts? Who will pay the insurance and the utility bills?
Bradford Council of course, only you and I are are expected to be too stupid to question this.
This is a white elephant imposed on the city by a distant national governing body slavishly following the results of a survey with a response rate lower than the turnout at most grassroots clubs AGMs!
So as our woeful leader bemoans more cuts and the impact on social care, education and other services, ain’t it grand that that a cricket ground nobody needs will be open soon? Inevitably, MPs and councillors will line up to seek the plaudits.
At the same time, across the city numerous well established and organised bodies contemplate uncertain futures impacting many thousands more people of diverse ethnicity, abilities, backgrounds and ages than will ever play cricket here.
You read it here first; this a disaster in the making (and we’ve been here before) that so typifies our idiotic council but who cares when there’s votes to chase?
Footnote – as a voluntary organisation with a seasonally underused building we viewed with interest a grant scheme being promoted by the Council. In the small print though was a condition excluding buildings with an alcohol license. Surely a building is a building?
Good Things About January
* the nights are getting lighter.
* no more Cliff Richard songs for another year.
* New Year resolutions dying a sweaty death on the treadmills at the gym.
* The Scruffy is full of moaning old farts again.
* cheap Christmas wrapping paper.
* seeing “on trend” clothes you bought at Raymond Town in the sale window.
* Gardeners World will be back soon.
* kids are locked up in schools again.
It Must Be Wednesday
On the Jeremy Vine radio whine-in the other day was a feature on the “new” craze sweeping gyms – spin. Strange I thought as I’d been inducing a near heart attack three times a week for well over a decade.
For the uninitiated, spin involves cycling on a static bike to music that you wish you could cycle freely away from. It is forty five minutes of sweat soaked torture.
My regular Wednesday class regrouped post the festive excesses as instructor Jon took the helm; there would be no prisoners tonight in our small community. The boy meant business.
The Kray Twins were up front as usual whilst my training partner would soon be sweating buckets of champagne through her mascara. Graham the accountant was bulging more than usual through his lycra shorts whilst a few ladies settled in for a nice chat and sod the cycling.
Our treat – should we make it to the end of the class – is the weekly clarion call from old warhorse Dave. Well past seventy the old boy is an inspiration to anyone.
We know its Wednesday, the weekend is in sight, our bodies refreshed when, as the last tune crashes to its climax, we hear a thunderous shout from the back row of “GO ON JON!!!”
As sirens wailed away from the darkness outside, the festive goodwill a distant memory for some, our small group took comfort from shared pain, back in unison once again, busted crotch or not.
One Hundred Years Ago
More tales here from another age although many similar themes run common including “…a shortage of suitable housing, opposition to immigrants being allowed to come here and work.”
On a lighter note an Idle bigamist is charged as is a man for masquerading as a woman plus a school ran out of coke meaning happy days for the kids.
Have a great weekend.
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