I see the new council has wasted little time in scuppering the new ice rink plans.
What a load of W..kers.

No they havent, ring me ASAP

After reading postings and press releases etc I get the distinct impression that they are turning there back on the agreed Proposals in favour of the Planet ice/ Phoenix consortium.

Then again with the Tories money talks.

Pity Labour does not look after there own in the same way as the Tories do but I digress. What is the situation then.

Lets hope that if they do intend letting the phoenix into the new ice rink it is not at the expense of junior development and the senior league and the home grown British players.

Ice time

I would also be intersting to see how this would affect ice time for the other teams for both training and games.
Personally if this is not resolved at the outset I see the phoenix playing out of the new local rink as detrimental to the development of british ice hockey and youth development. However this is just my opinion based on past experiences over the last 20 years or so.

Thought I had better put this on as well.

From: Derek Empson

To: Linda Cohen

18th June

Linda,

I'll be grateful if you will please publish the following information as widely as you can (Thank you for faxing me a copy of the front page of this week's Metro).

I was asked at short notice, yesterday, to attend a meeting this morning (Friday 18 June) in Altrincham Town Hall, chaired by Peter Noble (Regeneration Manager, Altrincham Town Centre Partnership) and attended by Councillor Stephanie Poole (Bowden Ward). She is the new Conservative Councillor on Trafford Borough Council responsible for Regeneration Projects including development of the Station Site, Oakfield Road Altrincham. I asked Jane Dawson to come with me so that she could pass on information to the other Altrincham professionals. The meeting was set up to address various Altrincham regeneration projects but the main one was the Station Site, Oakfield Road.

Cllr Stephanie Poole said she had come to the meeting mainly to clarify the new Council's position regarding the Station Site development which includes the ice rink. She said Cllr Susan Fildes (Altrincham Ward councillor) who is the new Leader, would have been there but was unavoidably at a meeting in London.

Cllr Poole stated she wanted to make it absolutely clear that the Conservative intention is not to delay the Station Site development any longer than is absolutely necessary. She realised that the question of the ice rink is of great concern. The previous Labour Council had unadvisedly rushed through a decision on the choice of 'Preferred Developer', despite the fact that it was only four days before the Election.

The Financial proposals of the four developers were complex and all were different. It was far from straightforward to interpret and compare them. The new Council Administration believes it important to ensure that the developer selected as the preferred developer offers what is truly the best solution for Altrincham. The Conservative council was very impressed by the generally high standard of developers' proposals but consider it is nonetheless important to be sure that the one selected is actually the best before the start of the six month's 'lock-out'.

The new Council took note of the high number of public responses to the questionnaire issued to members of the public who visited the Library and Gallery shop displays, and that the developer selected by the previous Council administration (Sterling St James) was only the third most popular choice of the public. They intend to listen to what the public and various other groups are telling them.

The new Council has already appointed independent accountants to examine the four Developers' submissions in depth. The Council will also examine all other aspects of the submissions. These investigations will be completed within 30 days. They will then decide whether Sterling St James will stand as the preferred developer or whether one of the other developers will be selected.

I asked Cllr Stephanie Poole if she and her colleagues would please issue a public statement or Press Release, preferably in the coming week, to clarify the situation, repeating the assurances she herself had given at the meeting regarding the 30-day delay and the future of the ice rink and the Station Site development. She said she would take note of the request and fully expected such a statement would be forthcoming as soon as it was practicable to do so, probably in a week or so.

I also reminded Cllr Poole that because the former ice rink in Devonshire Road had closed before a replacement rink was in operation this had hit skaters and ice hockey players very hard. Young people had been especially badly affected and most simply didn't have the time or the money to skate at Deeside or Blackburn as they had done at Altrincham. Consequently, many had had to give up skating or ice hockey, at least for the time being. The lack of a rink for another two to three years was very serious. I therefore reminded Cllr Poole that at least one of the developers had offered to provide a full-size 60 x 30 temporary ice rink if the Council would assist with finding a suitable site in or around Altrincham, to cover the intervening period until a new, permanent rink was ready.

Cllr Stephanie Poole said she had taken note of that and would refer it to the Council for consideration (Note. I have already written a letter to Councillor Susan Fildes, Council Leader, on this subject).

Cllr Poole stressed that they were listening to the public and would not make any changes to what the previous Council had decided unless they felt they were essential.

I was generally encouraged by the tone of Councillor Poole's message and have no reason to believe that the new administration are in any way opposed to the new ice rink or will wish to delay the process any longer than is necessary to ensure that the best choice of developer is finally made. They expect to be in a position to do this within the 30-day period following the Election.

Best wishes,

Derek Empson

There is only two rinks I know of who have a proffessional club and a full development set up playing out of the same venue and the ice time for games for the English clubs at Newcastle and Nottingham are definetley infeior as a travelling supporter due to afternoon face offs. Newcastle is the worse being at noon.

There is a lot of people now saying due to Altrincham having a new rink why dont we have a proffesional club and EPDL side under the one roof in the south of Manchester. Pity it was logistically impossible 12 months ago to keep the old Altrincham development set up along side a Proffesional club in Manchester or to have a proffesional club working along side a development set up in north Manchester.

Yes it would be great if it was possible to have the situation where you could have a proffesional club and a full development set up where the development set up does not suffer but unfourtunatley the proffesional club will always get the prefferential ice time as always money talks