Flintoff calls on Gubay to drop Lancs legal challenge
FORMER England and Lancashire County Cricket Club (LCCC) captain has called for Albert Gubay to drop his challenge to the scheme which will allow for the redevelopment of Lancashire’s Old Trafford cricket ground.
Mr Gubay’s property company, Derwent Holdings, has been granted leave to appeal a decision by the High Court to uphold a decision taken by Trafford Council in March last year to approve to the redevelopment of Old Trafford. The approved plans would bring in £70m worth of investment including a huge new 155,000 sq ft Tesco being built nearby.
At the same time as planners granted permission for the Tesco, they also turned down an application by Derwent Holdings to convert the nearby White City Retail Park into a 100,000 sq ft Sainsbury’s superstore.
Mr Gubay’s legal team have argued that planners were influenced by the fact that Tesco’s scheme included a £21m contribution towards the £47m cost of redeveloping LCCC’s Old Trafford cricket ground. However, this was dismissed in the High Court by Judge Waksman in March this year.
LCCC is arguing that a further legal challenge by Gubay to bring the case to the court of appeal threatens the prospect of bringing Test cricket back to Old Trafford for the 2013 Ashes series and even the future of the club itself.
Flintoff said: “Just as Manchester’s profile in world football is rising to new heights, our aspiration to have LCCC’s status on a similar level in world cricket is frustrated yet again by what seems to be a never-ending legal process.
“Albert Gubay said on BBC TV that he was worth £1bn. I’d like to ask him if he is intent on squeezing the life out of Lancashire County Cricket Club? Is he trying to break the hearts of countless cricket fans in the Northwest and sport lovers all over the world?
“And what does he seek to gain by pursuing what seems to be a pointless case through every court in the land?”
The case will now be heard by the Court of Appeal, but a date for the hearing has yet to be set.
LCCC Chief Executive Jim Cumbes said that the club had already begun to implement its planning consent and had begun with demolition and preparatory work so the development schedule can be met.
He said: “Mr Gubay’s own plans for a rival food store at White City have been rejected by the planning authorities. His latest challenge seems a pointless exercise, but it is creating huge uncertainty for us due to its financial implications.”
“Any appeal would be strongly opposed and we have instructed a leading planning silk, Mr Robert Griffiths Q.C. to represent us. We remain supremely confident that the ultimate outcome will be in our favour.
“We firmly believe we will ultimately get the go-ahead for our plans. We consider Mr Gubay’s strategy is to hold us up indefinitely until we run out of time and we ultimately fail. But, inspired by massive support from the North-west public, we are determined this will not happen.”
Alan Burke, a director of the club’s development partner Ask Developments, accused Mr Gubay of pursuing a “scorched earth” policy which, if successful, would mean no new ground for the cricket club and no new supermarket on Derwent’s land.
