Howlin' Wilf

It's applicable but why would those holding it apply a veto if there were a definite alternative stadium?

You've made a key point. Brabco's involvement was the quid pro quo for getting rid of Rankine. He had to be bought out if the club was ever going to progress and the money had to come from somewhere. And so progress has followed under the current board's stewardship and that of Chief Exec Gilbert Lawrie appointed to that position after Brabco's investment. Gilbert is a Sons fan of nearly 50 years and a Sonstrust member. It doesn't mean that Brabco shouldn't be subject to scrutiny, but the club does seem to be in much better fettle than it was five or ten years ago. If there were sinister motives afoot from Brabco, I doubt very much that the club would be in their current position. An asset stripper would run the club down and sell the stadium, not build it up and plan a new one. If it's a case of a new stadium and Brabco get a return on their investment through it I don't have a particular problem with that.

It'll be a love fest really, won't it?

Temporary applications are subject to the same planning process though and there is no apparent solution to the parking issue. I'm no expert on planning matters but the Chief Exec of the club, as a qualified surveyor and property consultant, is. He is someone whose very position is to maximise income for the club and he has concluded, after examining all the issues involved, that it can't be done.

That was certainly a factor in the amended application. However the wisdom from those involved at the time was that the 3500 application wouldn't have been passed anyway. Certainly not now with all the housing development completed and pending.

I can't see WDC instigating traffic orders for football matches and it's hard to see how your suggestion would improve matters. For one thing you'd be barring cars from parking in the stadium and therefore transferring the parking problem to Morrisons, St James and the town centre. For another you'd be denying access to the residents.

I'm not sure that the words logic and Historic Scotland belong together. I would say their objections are akin to the regulations on listed buildings in that they have a very strong influence on planning decisions. The problem here is that the decision was made in 1999 and restrictions remain. Any lifting of restrictions would involve renewed planning processes. With so much additional housing having already been built and with more to follow on the Bond site, thus putting even more pressure on available parking space and more traffic using the road, it's hard to see that a more relaxed view would be taken.

East Fife's ground isn't in a cul de sac similar to ours at all. We are at the end of a single access/exit road, whereas EF is part of the old harbour and docks which have many accesses and exits to the main road. I don't know the finer details about the car park opposite the old bottling plant but I think you'll find that it has consent as a car park where the council is involved.

Oh that it were so simple. White boxes have never been a problem to Historic Scotland whereas the stadium was/is anathema. Only severe and sustained pressure from Scottish Enterprise and the local MP of the time managed to overcome that to even have the reduced project built. But respect to your third party for penetrating an organisation so secretive and arcane that a reply to a straight written question can take several months and not contain an answer. To convert the 'wasteland' i.e. land with permission to build houses, would require another application for change of use to convert it from a house building site to a car park. How likely do you think it would be a) For the house builder to agree to this and b) The owners of the white boxes in Castle Rd (or indeed the residents of Castlegreen St) not to object en masse? OK3, you know the Chief Exec of DFC as well as I do. In a recent conversation with him he struck me as a man who was keen to embark on any scheme which would earn extra income for the club. He has I believe explored this very issue with the cooncil applying his considerable expertise in planning matters and concluded that it is a non starter.

The truth of the matter is that an initial application for a 3500 seat stadium in the current location was turned down on the issue of insufficient parking. The capacity is capped at 2000 by WDC. It's because the ground is situated in a cul de sac. Other grounds don't have this problem. I understand that the chances of getting the housebuilder who owns the old Newton Bond site to turn it over to the club as a car park are around the same as Vladimir Putin getting Julian Clary and Graham Norton to co-host the closing ceremony at Sochi. Also Historic Scotland, who administer the Rock/Castle would not countenance an erection(!) (Stand/terracing) facing the Rock and apprently this is just as enforcable as the planning regs.

I hear that Murray has a couple of options to sign a centre back for tomorrow. If push came to shove though would Nish be worth a try at CB? He wouldn't be the first centre forward to make that switch. There's always the option of Jack Ross pulling on a shirt too.

Whether the settlement is contractual or not will become irrelevant if the clubs don't have the money to pay.

Will Leish, who is on the SFL management committee and therefore a party to the drawing up of Friday's proposal, be resigning in the interests of sporting integrity? And Gordon McDougall? another SFL management guy whose club has declared they'll vote no?

He is surely delusional.

I've written a wee piece here about events. I don't know if anyone has made the point but as old pals, Rankine and McDougall will have been in this together from the start.

I've written a wee article on the Rankine situation here: Doctored Livingston I Presume?

I heard most of it and to be honest Massone's broken English made much of it quite difficult to understand. However I nearly fell off my seat when I heard him say: "I a being a helpa by a Neila Rankine formera Chairamana witha Dumbarton who is a happy to investa in da club." If Livi do survive, the fans should perhaps get their satnavs set for Coatbridge and Forfar and beware of the housing market recovering..