Monday 24 August 2009

Sutcliffe's Guide to Ministerial Ignorance: No. 1 - The Odeon

Gerry Sutcliffe, Sports Minister and Bradford MP has vaulted onto the Odeon bandwagon in his usual opportunistic and just slightly ignorant manner. It all sounds good with calls for penalty clauses, pre-lets and other exciting controls over the redevelopment of a GOVERNMENT-OWNED building.

This is the same Gerry Sutcliffe who, when leader of Bradford Council signed up to the disastrous superdome proposals for Odsal.

This is the same Gerry Sutcliffe who failed to persuade his mate John Prescott to allow the Sterling Capital development at Odsal to proceed.

And this is the same Gerry Sutcliffe who did everything he could to scupper a subsequent Odsal development that involved some changes at Horsfall Stadium half a mile away.

Now how do we put this so Gerry might understand?

You can't make someone develop a site unless they want to build. Developers will not sign up to penalty clauses - why should they, they're not contractors - and will need planning permission in order to negotiate any pre-lets. We can't make them build a white elephant, Gerry.

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