rlfan wrote:
This will be the same austerity Britain that sees Gateshead building a new 18000 seat arena alongside The Sage and only 1 mile from Newcastle Arena.
Nothing to do with austerity and everything to do with political will and vision for a positive future for the city.
I don't know anything about how those developments were funded; wouldn't it be ironic if some European money was involved...? But I doubt the LA paid for it?
I'm in no way making excuses for WMDC - I agree that we are in a shameful position in the City in terms of sports and leisure facilities and are badly served by a leader who appears to direct his efforts based on self-interest and positive PR; but the comment I was replying to was about the wider picture in terms of LA budget cuts - which are just a reality - the settlement for LA's from central government has gone down year on year, hence the disappearance of many services and facilities.
On the point of political will - I tend to agree that there are plenty of things WMDC could do, short of paying for the thing, to get it moving; but they seem unwilling. Mr Box spent 2 years simply saying that it was nothing to do with the Council, only to change his tune when the national media got hold of it - once that died down, so did his commitment to getting a stadium built.
