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JessicaJones

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    Swindon

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  1. JessicaJones

    Swindon Stadium

  2. JessicaJones

    Swindon Stadium

    Abbey Stadium: New pictures show latest work on Swindon stadium | Swindon Advertiser
  3. JessicaJones

    Swindon Stadium

    Clarke Osbourne reveals why Swindon Speedway had to leave stadium | Swindon Advertiser
  4. JessicaJones

    Swindon Robins 2020

    Have you seen GI’s accounts for the last ten years? Only profits have been from selling off land.
  5. JessicaJones

    Swindon Robins 2020

    You might be right but I thought, if they were going to do that, they would shut it during the pandemic as they did with Poole. They had the perfect excuse then. Instead we are 18 months on and the greyhound racing is still going on.
  6. JessicaJones

    Swindon Robins 2020

    The dogs have not gone yet. We won’t be celebrating until the greyhound racing actually stops for good. The rumours that the track is closing are just that-rumours. This was never about winning or losing for our group and the Robins fans and I’m sorry that it has been framed that way by some of you on here. About 3 years ago I approached the philanthropist who was working with SBC to redevelop the town centre asking if he would help with the speedway track. He phoned me the day he got my letter and suggested that GI paid for another site away from the Abbey for speedway - win/win for them and the speedway team because he could see then what GI were aiming to do. He said he would raise it at his next meeting with the council. I mentioned it on here but very vaguely about 3 years ago as he asked me to keep the details confidential but I think enough time has gone by for me to mention my conversation with him. A few months after that, the pandemic hit and the council would have put all non urgent work on the back burner. So yes, GI’s plan has been clear from the outset but I have tried to help where I can because I could see that we could have worked together well and both groups would get what we wanted. Our group also did a petition to the council, which was one of the petitions that got the most signatures ever, asking them to work with GI to redevelop the stadium without the greyhound track and giving them ideas as to what else it could be used for to make it economically viable. To help with the debate that should have come from the petition, I spent the first lockdown working on a long report which detailed GI’s history and the economic case for not relying on greyhound racing and which set out other ways in which the speedway team could be viable without it. We printed it out at great expense and posted it to all 56 councillors. Only two even bothered to acknowledge that they had received the report and the council refused to hold the debate saying that they couldn’t influence what the stadium was used for, which I find hard to believe. Someone suggested doing the latter a few weeks ago and we had already done this in 2020. I have been very unimpressed with the councillors at SBC I came across through all of this and think they - and the council officers - could have sorted this situation out a long time ago if they’d had the will or the ability.
  7. JessicaJones

    Swindon Robins 2020

    Ok but not one single person has said thank you for sharing it and I didn’t have to because every time I come on here I just get a load of abuse. Your post comes across as aggressive. I don’t know if you mean that to be the case but that’s how it reads. We were never against the speedway. I said that from the beginning and the whole reason I came on here is so that we could campaign together. No one was interested. Then the fans decided to do their own campaign a few months ago which was a bit late. I’ll stop posting now. I’m sorry you are losing the speedway team - for now at least, until a new site is found (if it is).
  8. JessicaJones

    Swindon Robins 2020

    Don’t take it out on me. Take it out on the council and Gaming International.
  9. JessicaJones

    Swindon Robins 2020

    This is why I don’t post on here! You wouldn’t know about the closure if I hadn’t posted about it. You’re welcome….please don’t take it out on me. Aim your upset at Gaming International.
  10. JessicaJones

    Swindon Robins 2020

    We had already heard a few weeks ago that the greyhound track is likely to close on 23rd December.
  11. JessicaJones

    Swindon Robins 2020

    My guess is that that’s for purposes of defending themselves against the breach of planning condition that stipulated they couldn’t build another house until the stadium was refurbished (I was at that council meeting). I wouldn’t believe a word Clark Osborne says (sorry). They’ll come up with some reason why they couldn’t rebuild the Abbey Stadium and will claim to be trying to find another site. Don’t hold your breath.
  12. JessicaJones

    Swindon Robins 2020

    Probably shocking because I came on here as a representative from the anti greyhound racing campaign asking to work with the speedway team to get the stadium redeveloped without the greyhound racing. I am not involved with the speedway campaign at all. I was told to sling my hook pretty much. So I can understand why someone is surprised that it came from me rather than someone involved with speedway.
  13. JessicaJones

    Swindon Robins 2020

    Yes, the speedway management should have been open about it from before they went to that BSPA meeting. I found that snippet purely by chance. I phoned my contact at the Adver today and he chased it up which may have forced the press release. It is now in the Swindon Advertiser. Since I researched the history of Gaming International, I thought it highly unlikely that the stadium would ever get redeveloped. And that, coupled with the growing unpopularity of greyhound racing, made me even more convinced. But every time I came on here to say, I was very unpopular….I debated whether to post that snippet at all because every post I have made got shot down in flames! https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/22808306.abbey-stadium-closes-doors-swindon-speedway/#comments-anchor
  14. JessicaJones

    Swindon Robins 2020

    Speedway teams relying on greyhound racing have no future. Far better for speedway to decouple from greyhound racing especially as Dogs Trust, the RSPCA and the Blue Cross did a joint press release yesterday calling for a nationwide ban on greyhound racing within five years. (This has been some time coming.) I found the snippet from the minutes of the BSPA meeting in the Twitter feed of a greyhound trainer in Ireland. I was surprised the news hadn’t made its way into the public domain already. I hope the speedway team manages to find another venue although I saw above that the company mentioned in the press release had only been set up today and it has Clark Osborne as a director. If that‘s true, then I don’t hold out much hope for it as anything that Osborne is involved with turns to houses. He is a director of tens of companies and most of them seem to be dormant. Perhaps the fans need to take control and approach the council for help? It was the council who stipulated that the site couldn’t be redeveloped until the stadium was refurbished and they have not held GI to this condition. The Dogs Trust press release is here: https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/how-we-help/the-future/cut-the-chase Pleaae do not (metaphorically) throw rotten veg at me. Our group always supported the speedway team but not the greyhound racing.
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