...one worry for me from what was a very positive meeting last night was what was said about the council offering Kassam an easy route to developing the overflow carpark for housing if he sold the ground to the community for a reasonable price. Bob Price said Kassam had since gone quiet and has not shown any interest although they said he has submitted three sets of plans for development there himself.
there was some important context that bob price gave there though. the carppark, if developed, is already designated for housing under the city plan, so kassam hasn't been given that route, it has always been there for him if he submits a plan that ticks the various boxes that oxford city council's plan requires (family housing being the principal one from recollection).
bob price did then say that it was a difficult site to develop for housing because of infrastructure issues, and the council had offered to help overcome those issues if a deal around the stadium could be done (someone help me out here, did he actually say acquired?). however, as kassam had only submitted plans that did not meet the city plan requirements, that conversation had not progressed any further, and he has now gone quiet about development there in general.
my interpretation is that the council are trying to leverage the difficulties around the site, but the plan requires that any development meets certain criteria, and kassam is trying it on by submitting plans that do not, presumably as those proposed developments are more profitable than if they met the requirements.
anyway, more broadly, a big thanks to the oxvox committee for organising what i thought was a very helpful meeting. really interesting to hear from niall mcwilliams and dan harris from the club (particularly niall mcwilliams saying that there had been a quite deliberate change in recruitment strategy at the start of the season that they were now reversing back to the strategy we had under appleton - a point not followed up on but does this say anything about eales' plans?), but particularly to have both bob price and ian hudspeth present. often our conversations around the stadium become assertions about what would or wouldn't be possible, so to have two informed local decision makers there helped us understand the viability of different possiblities and the factors involved.