NeilNo ICG councillor spoke against the proposal. Councillors Muston, Hibbs and I all voted for deferral. The one (Conservative) councillor who opposed deferral stated that he would have opposed the application.Councillor Muston was critical of aspects of the application, as indeed was I although I chose not to voice my criticisms at the meeting.You need to understand that for me to take a stated position on this forum could result in me being barred from voting on any future application. However, it must surely have been clear to any who were present that for me (or anybody else) to have forced a vote by recommending approval at last night's meeting would almost certainly have resulted in the application being refused. Presumably deferral is preferable, from the club's point of view, to refusal?I think that rather than blaming others for the committee's unwillingness to approve the application, you need to take a look at the club's whole approach to this matter from start to finish. There was genuine goodwill for the club on the part of some councillors, but precious little from the club's representatives. I have to say I found the club's attitude bizarre. Brentford FC (which I have supported since childhood) refused to discuss their application with the very people whose support would have swung it for them (their neighbours), then came to the area committee meeting spoiling for a fight with the very people whose brief it was to make the decision as to whether or not to approve it. So fundamentally stupid was the club's approach that, if I could think of a reason why it should be so, I would have said that it's representatives actually wanted the application to be refused.If you wish to know why a particular councillor did a particular thing, you will need to ask that councillor directly. There is no whip on planning issues (indeed where the ICG is concerned there is no whip on any issue) and Councillor Muston is not obliged to see things in the same way as I do.I hope the club doesn't lose its grant but the committee was never going to be bullied into approving what was always going to be a controversial application on these grounds. Blackmail should only ever be employed as a last resort, but sadly where Brentford FC was concerned it was the only weapon in its armoury. Has anybody at the club ever considered persuasion as a possible alternative strategy?All I can say on this forum Neil is that Brentford FC should take a good, long look at its whole approach to this application. It is easy to blame the councillors, but with so much at stake one might have expected the club to have made some kind of case which councillors who would like to have approved it could have spoken up for.
Phil Andrews ● 7434d