Assem's like a slightly bonkers rich uncle, he sometimes comes out with some strange things, but you let him off because he buys you better Christmas presents than everyone else.

He's a very successful man, he's made hundreds of millions and as a consequence he's used to being respected and he normally deals with other successful people. What he's not used to, is dealing with some slightly dim bloke from Orchard Park who's never achieved anything and only gets into office because barely anyone in his ward bothers to vote.

The bloke offered to raise over £100m to improve sporting facilities in Hull(creating the best sporting facilities in North East England) and create thousands of jobs, just so long as the council were willing to give him the site to do it on. It had no downside, it look the responsibility of improving the KC(which generates zero income for the council), improving West Park and improving Hull as a whole, most councils woukd have bitten his hand off.

Ours though, as is their tradition, just see it as some rich bloke trying to get something for nothing, rather that the opportunity that it presented. They're cretins, union men who see success as a threat, rather than an opportunity. It's nothing new, years ago Hull City Council turned down a major car plant, as they thought it would cause problems for wage level on the docks. I wouldn't give Geraghty a job as a cleaner, I suspect that dust could outwit him.

Assem's PR is often terrible and much of what's gone on has been handled very badly, but he's still the man who offered to invest a fortune in this city and it was thrown back in his face. Voters get the politicians they deserve and Hull has an appalling record when it comes to selecting it's politicians, there's only Alan Johson who knows what day it is. Hull is suffering badly at the moment, with our current politicians in charge, I see no chance of that situation improving.

Ask the people of RUSCADOR about that.



It's called democracy, you can't buy what you want.



You will, of course, have links to the detail of that and how the finance was leveraaged?



No downside, apart from him wanting it for nothing, and most Councils, like Hull, would give him short shrift, keep swallowing.

The only cretin here is you, and I thought you said you weren't coming back?

He made a big splash about a "Sporting Village Gif"t in the HDM, it's true.
But it wasn't a gift, it was a property deal, contingent on being given the stadium for nothing for borrowing purposes as a precursor to any fuller discussions, and with plans (costing £3,000, no less) not even being shared.
And it wasn't sporting, let alone "the best sporting facilities in North East England". It had an ice rink. Until it was pointed out there was one already in the city. By the second iteration it transpired it was about supermarkets and boutiques for the "wives" to shop in whilst the husbands attended the games.
I'd be interested on your views of town planning retail capacity in the city and whether the city centre is over subscribed. My opinion is that it is not, that there are enough vacant units and under-utilisation across the many existing shopping centres to preclude granting of further consent to an "edge of centre" development.
The main problem is that there have been no concrete talks, plans or discussions for the council to consider in detail, just some conflicting allusions to massive philanthropy and a dummy-spit. I can totally understand why the council have been cautious. The development goes bust in a retail market sector that's declining due to online growth and the mortgaged stadium is repossessed.

Shhh, scooterboy is recovering from having his gag reflex removed!

scooter man is a total muppet, talks made up things as facts

troll on scooter man

I can't believe I'm actually agreeing with Standee

Must be all that time spent in Egypt.

So, as I thought, it's just because he's a petulant man who's been told "no".

What right has he to potentially libellously call the council cheats and liars with a hidden agenda in the national press? How have they cheated him and what lies have they told him? And what is their hidden agenda?

Referring to people as slightly dim cretins merely because they are working class does nothing for your argument and says lots about yourself. You only have to compare the undignified rants of Allam to the reserved tones of Mr Brady to know who to trust. As Wilf pointed out the other day:


But I guess we should be grateful that your own hysterical rants aren't repeated on here. Taken (unedited, let's see what the swear-filter makes of it) from the City Independent massageboard:



Interesting. 'Loving' began with an f, 'friend' with a c in your original version.

Hmm. Incredibly charming, maybe.

Total and absolute tosh.

Post-WW2 both Ford and GM looked at building a plant on the North Bank (not within the City of Hull boundaries), with a view to the European export market. The main stumbling block was availability of land, all of the suitable sites were owned by Blackburn, Armstrong, Reckitts, Smith & Nephew, Hollis Brothers, Fenners and British Petroleum. It was the employers who were fearfull of another company arriving and potentially driving local wages up. Why would any council object to its citizens receiving enhanced remuneration, when much of that extra money could be spent on council-provided services.

As it was, both Ford & GM realised it was cheaper to buy out existing continental manufacturers or simply build plants over there anyway.

I don't know who your dealer is but he's obviously flogging you something you're not capapble of handling.

I've never had anything removed.

I accept that any Ruscador employee will feel hard done by, over half the staff were made redundant, but such is life. I recently paid £400k in redundancy payments, I'd rather have not made anyone redundant, but sometimes you have no option.

I suspect there's very few on this board who have ever run a substantial business, so I'm not surprised that so many are so suspicious of what's gone before, but I doubt it will keep Assem up nights.

Avoiding the questions on retail planning capacity, the conflicting content of the unshared proposals (sporting citadel vs Greggs/Carphone Warehouse), the implications of using a community asset as security on retail development in a declining and risky market, and Allam's inherently unreasonable negotiating position, suggest you are a something of an apologist. Running a big business doesn't qualify you to override perfectly sound covenants and basic planning policy. Attempting to discredit the valid argumentation and questioning raised on here by sneering about participants' entrepreneurial acumen makes it look like you don't know the answers.

He's have invested feck all. He'd have raised finance against a former public asset and made an absolute killing. Anyone who can't see though him is as thick as one of the councillors you refer to