spyinthesky

It seemed to me that a Chairman who is unable to understand his company's account ('Dont ask me I'ma builder') would worry the hell out of me if I was a Bournemouth fan The Chief Exec (Blake?) was not too impressive either Worrying times down there Fortunately Steve Fletcher and the Manager saved the forum from ending up as a one way slanging match between disgruntled fans and Eddie Mitchell

Wade Unfortunately heard the other day that the plan to expand the container berth by upgrading berths 201/2 have been put back a year or two because a rival port operator ie Hutchinson (who own Felixstowe & Harwich) complained about the environmental assessment and the Govt body responsible for this is sitting on its hands somewhere looking at the paperwork If the OK is eventually given the marine work can only be undertaken in certain months of the year due to migrating fish (bloody Pompey fans spoil everything for us!!!!)

If you ever speak to local politicians they will tell you that it all the area south of the M40 (apart from Cornwall and London) get in grants is scraps. Almost all EC and Uk Govt grants go north Merseyside has received £2.5b of grants in the past 10 yrs some of it to organise chess competitions, failed boat shows, training 250 hairsdressers. Other money has been wasted

No thats it Big ships can and do stop there However it is just a Landing Stage at the moment with a tiny passenger facility The challenge will be to build a proper turnround terminal and there are rumours of a £23m investment More Grants anyone|?

However that photo of Liverpool shows a fairly small cruise ship. Large ones can't get that far up the Mersey. The Liverpool cruise ship terminal proposed would be further out up towards Seaforth and Bootle I think. Which is an equivalent of Millbrook at Soton Docks.

Pap I think the last bit is all people really want Pay back the grant money and all is fair in love and (cruise) war. However the whole £17m should really be paid back not the £5+ million suggested Peel must be laughing up their sleeves at this as they get the lions share of cruise ship revenue due to their high River Dues There is the prospect of more ships coming to Liverpool and they will probably benefit more than most for little or no outlay

TopGun I hold no brief with SCC but to be fair they were the only local organisation, apart from Chamber of Commerce/Business Soton etc who put their head above the parapet and were loudly castigated from within and without the city for supporting the scheme As an aside it was your old friend Jolly Lord Prescott (humble John at the time) who had the power to overide the Inspectors (very tight) decision not to allow the Dibden Bay scheme to proceed. He was also the Minister who OK'd the Liverpool Cruise Terminal Grant, although to be fair to him he probably hadnt realised there would be a change of use put in so quickly

Guan Out of interest does your Dad see the deal between DP World (51% owners of the container terminal) and ABP (49%) being extended beyond the current term which is due to expire in the next 10 yrs or so? Rumour is that now DPW have sorted out their cash flow problems they will concentrate on developing Thames Gateway to the detriment of Soton Felixstowe is expanding, and there are other plans for increased container capacity at Harwich, Liverpool and Bristol so the NIMBYS who opposed Dibden Bay development (mostly from the Waterside area) who said 'Dibden bay is an area of outstanding natural beauty(!!!!)' and 'We dont need jobs in this area'(!!!) may well reflect on their attitude in years to come. Also there is a question mark against the motives of P&O Ports (who were the 51% shareholders of the container terminal at the time) who may well have had one eye on their project on the Thames (subsequently taken over by DPW) and didnt want Dibden bay to proceed

Pap Liverpool is a great place to visit, provided you stay within the central area. Beyond this is not so pleasant However much of the recent investment for improvements has come from Europe (Objective One) and the NWDA. Between them billions of pounds has been poured in the area to help build and maintain museums, provide a conference centre, new roads, the cruise terminal, a ferry terminal, etc etc. Quite a bit has been wasted as well Oh and approx £7m was given to Liverpool FC to develop a new stadium at Stanley Park This has yet to happen although there seems to be a campaign not to pay the money back as, apparently, it's not the fault of LFC that they cant afford to progress the stadium You may argue that all this grant aid money is fair enough However if only a small proportion of this money had been available down here how much more attractive the city and the waterfront would be. In truth however the 'ease to the eye' is of little consequence to cruise ship company's otherwise why would Dover, Harwich and Tilbury and, arguably Southampton, have made their mark as cruise turnround ports. The real argument here is Liverpool being given a massive amount of free money to be spent for a specific purpose (ie calling cruises only) and then seeking to change the rules more or less immediately As has been said by many people, if Liverpool was so confident of success let them finance the deal themselves then everyone is playing off a level playing field. Of course this wont happen and, to be fair, there are some people in Liverpool questioning this ongoing reliance on grant aid for 'prestigious' projects when there are significant social issues within the city to resolve.

Oh yes remember this now Apparently there was a bit of an outcry at the suggestion they were buying a couple of London Film studios in order to transfer the work to 'Media City' at Salford Quays (owned by Peel) where they have already enticed the BBC out of Shepherds Bush, and then try to sell the film lots for housing Some suggestion they could get round the Green belt issues in Herts (connections somewhere?) and do very well out of the deal Peel certainly seem to be operators Read somewhere that one of their Chief Execs went on record to say that 'You have to be prepared to dance with the devil' when contemplating doing a deal with Peel

Didnt peel also buy into one of the London Film studios?

Interesting Presume the 6 second rule still applies but can never recollect any keeperduring a televised game being punished for it Also, at St Marys, quite regularly see keepers kicking from hand out of the penalty area but never penalised for handball

TG Quite interested in JW Apparently he nearly took holy orders and here he is now a multi millionaire Seems to have the midas touch It is right that Peel is a very demanding company to work for?

1. Is the Obstruction Rule still extant? Can't remember seeing an official giving an indirect free kick in recent times 2. Is the minimum playing time now 91 mins? Cant remember a game without added time, even ones with no stoppages 3. Exactly what does 'interferring' mean as part of the offside rule? In yesterdays game at WHL a Spurs player was directly in front of the Man City keeper when Spurs scored late on. Surely he was 'Interferring with Play'

But what about John Whittaker himself?

Sorry if it has been covered elsewhere but did anyone hear the Everton fan who had been at the game (cant remember for what reason) but was waxing lyrical about the excitement and quality of Championship football and was highly positive about our contribution

Post on Leicester Forum by letstajigs... 'out played, out sung, out fought. how we won this game I do not no (sic) Should be happy not ****ed off Most of the other comments were very complementary to us

Peel took over the old Mersey Docks Company in 2005 having acquired all their shares from previous owners. The announcement of the £17m grant aid for creartion of a £19m cruise liner facility came in May of that year so Liverpool Council was pursuing the grant application. By all accounts the grant aid terms were quite specific. Only 'calling cruises' only so as not to compete with rival UK ports who had invested their own money in turnround facilities. Within months Liverpool council was lobbying for a change of use but the labour Govt turned it down Now the Tories seem keen to allow this which is odd bearing in mind their 'free market' policies I am sure this is pure speculation but the Chancellor, George Osborne, represents a nearby constituency and thereis some suggestion that the owner of Peel Ports is a financial supporter of the Tory party. Make of this what you will.

Liverpool is a great place (weather not so good tho') but wonder how Southampton would look if it was enhanced by a fraction of the £2.5billion in EU and UK Govt aid given to Merseyside in the past 10 years

Saw him playing alongside Rancine at Totton pre season Both looked solid centre backs at that level

Bearing in mind that Martin and Seabourne are relatively decent in the air but not exactly quick and/or comfortable on the ball then perhaps NA is looking for a nippier, left footed player who can better deal with the small speedsters who are relatively common in the Championship. Jaihidi is on his last legs and will not be here next year but is an ample backup when fit However until this happens and god forbid Fonte is injured/suspended, we are a bit light in central defence

Know it is wrong to bang on about our ex or nearly ex players but notice that young Anthony remains warming the bench at Aldershot (who havent exactly set the world on fire in Div 2) and Tommy has been relegated to reserve GK at Thurrock in some Sunday League type set up. I would really love to know the real circumstances behind their involvement at SFC. How could someone be so wrong!!

minsk that bet is so unfair the gaming board will be after you don't you realise that since the restart of league fixture after the second world war pompey have only exceeded saints average crowds for 17 out of 65 seasons, the majority of the former were during the time when pompey were a top side. Fair play to them for this, of course, but even when they were winning their two consecutive titles their average gates were 37,000 at a time when the capacity of fratton park was 50,000+. And post war crowdes were at record levels they also had the benefit of a large royal naval contingent just after the war and quite a few people from southampton used to go and watch their games so their support has not been as 'loyal' as saints in recent times dont forget also that fratton park had a higher capacity until season 2001/2

About 5-10 yrs ago Simon Clifford boasted he would take Garforth town to the Premiership in short order (5-10 years?) Where are they now?