Jimmy Returns: “Wrexham Fans Are Entitled To Ask Where Our Share Is” – No Response From Council

A local football periodical has returned after an eight year hiatus asking questions of Wrexham Council surrounding various historic planning issues around the Racecourse ground site. 

The Dismal Jimmy fanzine first appeared in 2004 and was the sole local print publication asking tricky questions of then owners and prospective owners of Wrexham Football Club, enabling a wider debate on the town’s club during one of its most troubled times.

The new edition that surfaced before last Saturday’s home game against Boreham Wood covers several topics and contains a handy timeline on the serious historical issues of the club, starting with Mark Guterman taking over as majority shareholder from Pryce Griffiths (who insisted on £500,000 on any redevelopment of the ground). The timeline also covers the well documented legal battles and various colourful characters who were involved or attempted to get involved with the club.

Below shows the vision sold to the people of Wrexham of the development, which is quite a contrast to those dodging barbed wire and rubbish on Crispin Lane recently.

One possible reason for the revival of publication is the land deal that saw the ‘Wrexham Village’ student flats built, and as Wrexham.com readers will have seen before on this article entitled “Planning Committee ‘Gamble’ Destroyed As £13m Flats Up For Sale With No Money To Club“, the development has recently gone up for sale with a large price tag.

Our picture from the infamous ‘Valentines Day leaflet’ in 2009 makes the publication, with the last line that is the crux of the argument over the destination of development profits. Similar promises were not just made to football fans, but local Councillors and the people of Wrexham.

Excerpt from the 2009 Valentines Day leaflet issued to fans of Wrexham FC

In the newest ‘Jimmy’ they write about Wrexham Council, stating: “They could have ensured that the development benefited the town and club by tying the permission to certain obligations placed upon the developers.

“The Council could have insisted on a binding “Section 106” agreement which would have ensured that a new Kop would have been built as part of the development. Remember when Asda built the new Alexandra school when they moved to their new site? They did not do so.

“Under the guidance of the Chief Planning Officer at the time, Lawrence Istead, they accepted a watered down version of a Section 106 agreement, called a Unilateral Under- taking. This is a form of 106 but not as binding on the developers.”

The publication adds: “Our belief is that by waiving a Section 106 agreement the Council actually gave the developers a cheque for over a million pounds. Perhaps in the deluded belief that this would be invested in the football club.”

After citing various figures and calculating possible benefits and payments, they say: “So we feel that Wrexham fans are entitled to ask where our share is. The Council, who have managed the matter on our behalf, are almost mute on the subject.”

With historic decisions of the local authority highlighted, the Dismal Jimmy do add a balance saying, “The Local Authority are an easy target for any lazy malcontent. It’s always their fault isn’t it? Well of course it isn’t. There are a lot of people there who work hard and try and do their best for the people of the Town. But issues like this one do very little to inspire confidence.”

On the final page Dismal Jimmy issues two ‘demands’, firstly asking that Wrexham Council ‘enforce the terms of the unilateral undertaking’, and secondly challenging the Welsh Assembly to ‘call in’ the planning application and conduct a review – with a petition to those ends being launched shortly.

As we have written several times previously it was reported by the Daily Post in 2011 that the redevelopment deal was subject to an active ‘probe’ by Wrexham Council, with the Post reporting at the time “Their remit is to look at the impact on any pledges made by Wrexham Village when they were granted planning permission to redevelop around the Racecourse.

“One of the conditions was an agreement which stated the developer would plough any profits from the completed development to the provision of a new Kop stand to seat 4,560 people. Council officers will want to know how far that is being honoured.”

In July 2016 we asked a question to Wrexham Council on the existence of that ‘probe’, referenced in the article. Our question was ignored and unanswered in the Council’s response at that time.

Last Friday we asked Wrexham Council about this ‘probe’ again, and if it was duff reporting unchallenged over the years, or if it really existed. We also asked if the probe did exist, what was the report of the probe and who got a copy.

We also gave a short overview of the Jimmy’s position, and asked if there was a general comment on the collapse of the Wrexham Village project and enquired how that reflects on the WCBC planning process, including value of assurances developers give committee.

Despite several nudges on the query throughout this week, and even noting that we would be publishing this today as this article was gathering digital dust in our drafts were keen to include any response, we still have had no reply.

If and when we get a response we will update readers.

Copies of the publication were ‘sold’ at a donation price, with printing costs being covered first and any surplus being donated to the club’s Disabled Supporters Association (DSA), with it appearing several hundred pounds will be raised for that cause.

You can still buy copies online here – but they are PDFs as the paper hardcopies sold out.