Controversial advertising boards given the go ahead.
Posted on September 18th, 2010 | 72 Comments |
Controversial plans to stick some advertising signs to the side of the St James’ Park were given the go ahead yesterday despite the plans attracting more that 23,700 objections, including objections from as far a field as Malaysia.
But now Newcastle City Council have agreed the planning application submitted bby the club which will see three new signs attached to the Milburn Stand and another three signs attached to St James’ Park on the outside of the Gallowgate End with the long term aim being to increase commercial revenue coming into the club.
Yes that is right, the long term plan is to increase revenue into the club, and if these signs can do that then I don’t have an issue with it. I understand that people may not like them, but at the end of the day the plans have been given the go ahead after the council has heard any objections that people have against the proposal.
Two signs measuring 8m x 4m plus another sign measuring 22m x 2.5m will be attached the outside of the Milburn Stand whilst the Gallowgate will now display another two 8m x 4m signs and another measuring in at 9.2m x 16.5m.
The club has maintained all along that there is no intention for the ground to have it’s name changed from St James’ Park, and to be honest, the last time it was changed nobody that didn’t support Newcastle United battered an eyelid to it. There were a few wind-ups from opposing fans but, well, so what. Sticks and stones and that, and they soon died down.
“We are not changing the name of St James’ Park,” Steve Burn said on behalf of the club. “We are trying to attract new commercial partners. There are many stadiums throughout the country which do this sort of thing.”
As I said earlier this move willl make some people unhappy, even though it has now gone through the proper channels. Planning applications such as this are usually dealt with behind closed doors at the council but due to the large number of objections it was thought that it would be better to buck the trend and hear this particular application in public.
Bill Cochrane, a committee member of the Newcastle United Supporters Association, had this to say at the meeting according to The Journal;
“These signs can not have a positive impact on conservation of the area. St James’ Park has been described as sitting on the top of a hill overlooking a city in the same way as the Parthenon. They don’t allow advertising on the side of the Parthenon and it shouldn’t be allowed on the side of St James’ Park.”
“Those signs make it look like some sort of sports store inside a shopping mall. People are going to come here and mock us. This thing destroys the credibility of the city.”
The Parthenon? Really? Anyway, now the move has been given the green light it will be interesting to see what becomes of these new signs. If we sell them to a company that isn’t SportsDirect quickly enough then I reckon a lot of those rejections to these proposals will just drift away anyway.
Time will tell!
NUFCBlog Author: toonsy
toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.
F*ck em, it’s match day all we want now is footy banter! The lad I went traveling with is a diehard toffee, his prediction is 4-1 Everton with at least 1 pen. I’m going 1-3 toon, Fellaini to get the first from an Arteta assist, carrol to equalise and Ben arfa to get to superb second half goals.
Howay The Lads!