THIRD-PARTY LAND DEALS 'COULD TIP THE SCALES'

At the Bath Rec Trust meeting on March 24th Peter Downey, Chairman of the RFOTR, in his statement alluded to a letter in the Bath Chronicle from Mark Blathwayt. It appears that a potential breakthrough in the deadlock with the Charity Commission may at last be forthcoming.

One of the main detriments highlighted by the Charity Commission in their refusal to increase the rugby club’s existing footprint, is the club’s current lease, which they claim is a breach of charitable trust as well as the additional land that they are requesting.

Mr Blathwayt had suggested that a possible land swap, compensating the Charity Commission for this, could significantly alleviate this perceived detriment and be a way forward.Peter Downey also alluded to this with potential land at Lambridge. The Council, as a third party, could potentially also get involved with safeguarding pockets of land for residents and satisfying the requests of the Charity Commission.

Further to comments by Mr Chris Watt, Chair of the Rec Trustees and Bob Calleja, Chief Executive of Bath Rugby, this clearly appears to be an area that all parties are very keen to consider and are hopefully actively pursuing.

Your comments on this would be very much appreciated on our discussion board, as we believe that this is a potential breakthrough in the current deadlock. (Note to make a post on the discussion board you need to register on the board - a very simple exercise).

Statements by Peter Downey and Richard Wright to the Rec Trustees meeting can be viewed here and here. Also see the Bath Chronicle report of the meeting here.

THE REAL VARSITY MATCH ON THE REC!

This match takes place on Tuesday 28 April between Bath University and Loughborough. The Ladies match kicks off at 5pm followed by the Men’s at 7.30pm. This is a free event, which in previous years has attracted approximately 3000 spectators.

We understand from the organizers that there is a “hospitality” package available to include hot buffet and wine at 6pm in the Hamptons stand, followed by tea/ coffee and biscuits at half time, watching the game from the box seats.

There is still also an opportunity to sponsor the Man of the Matchthat includes 2 “hospitality packages”, an advert in the programme, announcements at the game, logo on all the events PR and web site and presentation after the match.

For further information please contact Lisa Ashcroft, Events Team Sports Development, University of Bath, Tel: 01225 38 4267

A BEAUTIFUL VIEW OF THE REC

One of our members has kindly sent in a photograph (click here), showing the Rec from a hot air balloon! The shot was taken at taken on 9 June 2008 at 7.31 pm precisely and shows the footprint on which Bath Rugby have their current lease for 25% of the Rec. This increases to 27% with the East stand extension. The photograph also shows how empty the Rec can be!

A GREAT QUOTE

From H.E, Gosport (we have reproduced the main points from her long and very interesting email):

"We come quite a long way, as we live in Gosport..... but it seemed as if the whole of Gloucestershire and BNES..... had descended on the city centre. The atmosphere was electric too. Just over a month later, we spent a weekend in Bath ...on the Friday night... fully expected the area to be packed to the rafters everywhere, having seen it a month previously. We just assumed that it was like that all the time, Bath being a major city. It was almost dead all over the place... none of the lively, vibrant atmosphere we had experienced the month before...

After the game on Saturday, we went back to the Boater – and it was jam packed! Again, the lively atmosphere that had been so lacking the night before – most people in there had come direct from the game.

The ground itself is stunning – it is really lovely to look around you, whichever stand you are in, and see the scenery... the beautiful trees....all these things give the ground an atmosphere – I would even go so far as to be old fashioned and say 'a soul'.
If you don’t understand what I mean... go to... one of the large footie stadiums, like Old Trafford or Emirates... if the club leave the Rec, I really think it could spell disaster for many businesses in the city centre, and potentially, for the tourist industry."

MEMBERSHIP

Our numbers continue to grow and we are now over 4200 but we need to push past the 5000 barrier. You can now use the new version of 'Email A Friend' to invite up to 4 of your friends to join at one time. Try it here and help us to get over 5000!

NEXT MEMBERS MEETING

It is our intention to have a full, open members meeting following the published outcome of the 9th April submissions from the Rec Trustees to the Charity Commission. Watch this space!

NEWSLETTER

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