Football 0 - 2 NIMBYs

It's a sad day for football - and for sport in general in this area as our good friends and neighbours Poole Town have had yet another attempt to find themselves a viable permanent home in the borough of Poole thwarted by a vocal minority of NIMBYs.

Anyone who has played amateur football in the BFA or Dorset leagues has probably had the misfortune to play on Branksome recreation ground. It's a very poor facility, desperately in need of investment. Poole Town's plans looked like an excellent way of achieving this. In return for sacrificing a small portion of the rec (17%) as a ground for The Dolphins, the drainage and the facilities in the rest of the park would have been improved. It's really hard to see a downside to the proposal - but in an area where people are happy to see idyllic cricket pitches turned into branches of Waitrose, sport never stands a chance.

At Dean Court we've had many of our own problems with this kind of selfish NIMBY opposition. For BRAG in PTFC's case, read FOKP in ours. Elaine Findlay and her handful of unelected cronies and a handful of Tory councillors sought desperately to torpedo our stadium redevelopment plans. To an extent, they were successful as well - the club's application for planning permission for an amended stadium design that included a hotel was thrown out. If this had been permitted, it is very likely that the stadium development would have been able to been properly funded. The gap in the funding for the development would not have been financed by punitive bridging loans, but by inward investment into the enabling facilities that had been incorporated into the design.

The significance of this should not be lost on any AFCB fan. If it were not for the FOKP and the Tories, it is entirely likely that we would still own our own stadium. We would not have gone into administration again and we would in all probability still be playing in League One - if not higher.

The "debate" over the rec has been painfully familiar at times, the residents' arguments were the same hackneyed, misrepresentative and ignorant lines as were used to attack our club. The same tripe about grass roots football clubs being "private companies" and "profit making" were trotted out by BRAG just as they were trotted out by Findlay's mob. Of course, we all know that the reality of football is that only a couple of clubs in the country make any kind of profit whatsoever, and the rest of us just struggle to survive - and if profit is ever made thanks to the sale of a player or a cup run, it goes back into the club.

Poole Town themselves have had a torrid time since they were disgracefully thrown out of the stadium that is still adorned with their name. They led a nomadic existence for some years, playing at Hamworthy United, briefly sharing Dean Court, Holt and Haskells Rec before taking up residence at Tatnam Rec. It has taken far too long for the town's football team to be found a suitable permanent home.

We can all only hope that some good may come from this setback and that it may engender some political will to right this long standing wrong. It's too much to hope that something will be done to get The Dolphins back into Wimborne Road - but PTFC fans and directors are already discussing Plan B - possibly at Canford Park Arena. Let's hope that Dorset football will be the winner in the end. Sadly, the real losers from this are the people that stood to gain a much improved facility at Branksome.