Saturday, 22 October 2022 – Football Focus on Jobs
Last weekend, a special edition of BBC Football Focus came live from Craven Cottage, Fulham’s home ground. Glenn Murray, former Brighton and Hove Albion player, commented on the history of the stadium and his experiences of playing in such a tight space, “…but the new Riverside stadium… er, sorry, stand, is amazing.” It is. Costing £97m, the old Putney Stand next to the Thames was reconfigured, and a new construction developed, providing two tiers with a seating capacity of 29,600 above a building with an all-glass front looking out over the Thames including all-week hospitality, leisure and retail, nine serviced apartments, basement parking, a riverside walkway and a proposed (it also needs planning permission from the London Port Authority) jetty and dock so that the owner of the Football Club, Illinois-based American car-parts billionaire, Shahid Khan, can arrive to watch his beloved Cottagers.
I know this (the specification of the development) because I have been involved in the S106 agreement on the planning permission of the development. And Glenn Murray is on telly purring over the new stand, so big and glaring overlooking the small Craven Cottage House on which he was looking on from the balcony, that he mistakenly called it a stadium rather than just a stand. The BBC cameras did it justice.
All of the planning obligations haven’t been discharged on its planning permission yet, though, including the S106 Economic Development contributions. On 15 March, before the end of the last season, the council’s Planning Officer from the Strategic Planning Team responsible for this development, representatives from the Football Club, their planning agent, the Director of the developer, Buckingham Group, and I, the Economic Development S106 Officer, met to discuss the progress of the development and the lack of progress in recruiting local labour, including creating apprenticeships and work experience placements, an obligation on which planning permission was agreed between the planning applicant, Fulham FC, and the council, to be dependent. It was the Buckingham team who brought to my attention in one of our previous quarterly review meetings that they were unable to fulfil the Employment and Skills obligations because they had completed Phase 1 of the development: the remediation, foundations and skeleton structure, but were unexpectedly not being retained by the Club to do Phase 2: the fit-out stage. A new developer would be brought in to do this. I notified the Planning Officer and he arranged the meeting. In it, the Project Director at Buckingham confirmed that the last Employment and Skills Report was their last one and confirmed they were not going to achieve any more towards the targets because they were no longer employed on the development. The Planning Officer confirmed financial remedies would be sought for any under-delivery of apprenticeships and work experience placements before any S106 obligations would be discharged from the planning permission, and Fulham FC agreed that they would pass on the outstanding targets to the new developer commissioned to do the fit-out. The remedies amount to £287,000.
I never heard back from Fulham FC and, in one of my admin reviews this month, I read my notes on what had been agreed in the meeting in March. I emailed the Planning Officer again reminding him about our agreement in March and updated him that:
“…I never heard back from anyone on this and I’m conscious that we are two months into the new Premier League season and I assume the fit-out has been completed.”
This is before I saw Glenn Murray on the telly admiring the newly completed, or at least nearly completed and, as far has he could tell from inside the ground, in-use, Riverside Stand, but my assumption was right.
“Can you tell me”, I continued, “do you have any update on this or should I now be seeking financial remedies from the applicant?”
On 6 October, the Planning Officer mostly copied and pasted my email and sent it to the planning agent, Lichfields, instead to answer:
“Hi [planning agent],
“Back in March, we had a meeting with Buckingham Group regarding the s106 Economic Development (Employment & Skills and Local Procurement) contributions. You may recall that it was agreed insufficient contributions had been made at that time and we advised that financial remedies would be required unless the required non-financial contributions were made as per the s106 [contract].
“I am informed that [the Project Director] from Buckingham has advised our colleagues in Economic Development that their involvement is now over because they had not been retained to do the fit-out stage. FFC were going to explore whether the outstanding obligations could be passed on to the new contractor.
“We are aware that the fit out has commenced and it would be helpful to have an update or we’ll need to seek financial remedies.
“Regards
“[Strategic Planning Officer]”
Today, the agent replied:
“Hi [Strategic Planning Officer]
“Phil at Legends [?] has liaised with Bucks [the Phase 1 developer, Buckingham Group] for an update on the JEBS [a previous acronym for the Employment and Skills Plan]. The Club is awaiting Bucks’ finalised employment tracker and JEBS report. This is being chased but is delayed.
“As per our previous discussion, the Club is willing to carry forward any shortfall in the JEBS obligations to the fit-out and, if required, operation phase. Once the Club has received Bucks’ JEBS report it can then consider the implications and at that point it would seem a sensible time to meet with you and your colleagues again to confirm the position and the strategy going forward.
“Would that be okay?
“Regards
“[planning agent]”
Well it’s not okay with Glenn Murray. He seems to think the fit-out stage is complete. And he broadcast his appreciation of the results live on the BBC. Also, the Director of Buckingham Group already confirmed in our meeting in March that they have submitted their final Employment and Skills tracker and there is nothing more to report. This would not be the first time a property owner has not let stark reality be a hindrance to agreeing multi-million pound developments with the council.
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