Town Hall

Any news from todays proceedings ?

They don't sit on a Monday - starts again tomorrow.

From the Methley Gazzette (sic)

I am so glad the inspector is visiting Glasshoughton to see how far Castleford have come in building their new stadium that we can 'share'...lol or what??

My understanding is that Leeds, as a rule 6 party, asked the inspector to visit GH but equally we think that this will have come from pressure from the objectors to Leeds.

Be interested to know how many of the Methley and Mickletown campaign group are actually Castleford supporters.
Surely the inspector is intelligent enough and geographically competent to be aware of how close those areas are to Castleford.
I am just so suspicious of the true motives or roots of the objections.

Today was the site visit to Wire and Leigh - no news as yet on how it's gone.

Tomorrow is the main event now. We would like people to attend (we know the opponents are drumming up support), but we do not want any conflict.

The opponents get their opportunity to speak from 2pm, starting with the hired gun from Barton Wilmore, but then followed several others.

This is a professional process and we have been heard fairly and so should the opponents. That's not to say that we agree with them and we will have the opportunity to ask questions - politely and with relevance.

Our concern is that we do not upset the inspector by having a slanging match - and so our suggestion is that anyone who has a burning question, runs them past Inflatable Armadillo by pm - he can even raise them for you at the event.

Anyone who does ask a question may be challenged themselves if the question is not valid or comments made not relevant.

So, in summary, please attend if you can, but show respect for the attendees and speakers and in general, keep quiet unless you are sure of the detail you speak about.

Many thanks.

I think that this a bit of a red herring and the group of people in Methley that are really that troubled & therefore bothered by the proposed development is quite small.

I hope they going to show him the supermarket that will fund the stadium aswell....

Thanks TRB, beat me to it!

Just to add to what TRB has posted, please don't think we don't want you to ask questions but if you do want to ask a question think very carefully about that question, what it will achieve and how you ask it!

The barristers, like all barristers in this situation, generally only ask a question when they are fairly certain they know what the answer is going to be before they ask it... if they don't, they don't ask it as it is better to say nothing than to get an unexpected answer!

I would suggest that, as much as possible, questions be firstly closed and not open questions! Closed questions are ones that generally can only be truly answered by yes, no or don't know! Then what is the real point of the question! What I mean by that is that you are unlikely to change the persons mind at this stage and they are very likley to disagree with you if your question is so worded or asked to question their point of view or their opinion already knowing it is different to yours; or equally your question is worded to try and broadcast your differing point of view to theirs and is therefore 'disguised' as a question.

I have some questions in mind that I may or may not ask, and they are very factual and are designed to mostly solicit yes or no answers and I am fairly certain I know what the answer will be before I ask it!!!

Please let me know via PM if you would like to discuss options for questions or would like to talk through any questions you were thinking of asking yourself. I might be able to give you an answer already and depending on what that is, whether it worth asking them that! Equally, we could possibly re-word the questions slightly and indeed get an answer they will not like having to give!

Right, I am taking Little Armadillo to Ronnie Rhino's Christmas Party, so will log on later for any PM's.

Will Yorkcourt's representative be cross-examining the speakers/witness from those opposing the build?

When would the outcome of the visit today be known... if at all?

I think it's important that the Inspector doesn't get the impression that the distance between Wakefield and Castleford is the same as the distance from Newmarket to Glasshoughton.

For example he should have to take a bus from Criggleston or Horbury and travel to Glasshoughton and back with two young boys in tow.
That way he'd get a very real impression of what it would mean for many fans if the club were forced to relocate to Cas.

He should also interview a number of Castleford fans and Wakefield fans about whether they think a ground share at Newmarket or Glasshoughton respectively is viable.

We may not be Premier League football but he should know that Wakefield and Castleford sharing a ground is akin to asking Manchester Utd to share with Manchester City. Don't throw AC Milan and Inter Milan at me because their shared stadium was fraught with violence for years until they recently gave up the ghost and decided to develop a separate stadium.

Alot of people in the village are cas fans so theres a chance that members of the campaign group have at least a passing interest in Cas. Really bugs me living in Methley and a trin fan, when june and friends claim they represent the whole village, they dont!.

They don't represent many people in Methley TBH, and the ones they do, are the type who'll believe any old scare story.
I know plenty of people in Methley, and most of what they have been told only bares little comparison to anything that can be considered factual.
A handful of vocal halfwits does not constitute a fraction of a village the size of Methley.
Don't believe the hype.