Read Rowing Against the Tide - A career in sport and politics Online
Authors: Martin Brandon-Bravo
Looking back on that earlier project at Holme Pierrepont, which took barely three years from concept to completion, the Caversham project was a hairy roller coaster of over ten years, with fears that it would never see an end to the problems constantly thrown up on the way.
In 1995, Brian Armstrong the International Manager, had submitted a paper as part of the Facilities Strategy for the ARA. It set out the need for a dedicated training facility in the Thames Valley, and it was subsequently put before the Sports Council for consideration. I had been elected National President in 1993, and later was asked to meet up with Brian and David Sherriff who owned the Thames and Kennett Marina on the possible site of a training course. David Sherriff had opened a marina there in 1970, and had long held the idea of a rowing course there. He discussed the possibility with Redland Lafarge in 1993, who were neighbouring land owners, and they decided to take over and seek to progress the project themselves. I was leaving Henley for that meeting when Arnie Zarach popped out of the Little White Hart to say hello, and what was I doing in Henley? When I told him of our planned meeting, he referred to the potential course as Leander’s. Being ignorant at that time of the background, I did realise that there could be a problem, but it was a false alarm, for the committee of Leander were fully supportive from the outset, even if some active oarsmen at that club were less relaxed about the plans.
The outcome of that meeting with David Sherriff confirmed that Leander did use a lake by the marina, but not on any formal basis, and that Redland/Lafarge who had large gravel workings and a processing plant there, had ideas for a 2000metre course just 100 or so yards further north of the line of the present course. That course was dependant on Redland obtaining planning consent to build 200 homes in the northwest corner of the site, and they were prepared to put £2million from the profit of such a development as part funding of the course, with the balance dependant on a successful lottery application.
David Sherriff was certain that the South Oxfordshire District Council would not approve of Lafarge’s application, for they feared that being attached to existing Reading housing, in no time at all, Reading would be seeking to extend its boundaries and seek authority over all or part of the area, and that was a risk the District Council would not take. A very helpful director of Redland/Lafarge, John Leivers, whilst he had been in the industry for many years, had never seen a 2000meter course, and he came up to Nottingham, and was quite taken aback at the sight of the Holme Pierrepont course.
In 1997 he and I made a presentation to the planning authority, and whilst sympathetic to our aims, the members confirmed that they would not risk the downside of a housing development on their site which had been set aside for recreational purposes.
As a result, Brian, Di Ellis, David Tanner and I went back to David, who reconfirmed his desire of handling the project himself, for he had already bought much of the land necessary to provide a 2000metre stretch for our sport, and Lafarge/Redland were willing to sell the necessary additional land, to complete the needs of the course, and allow David Sherriff to build a new marina at the western end of the area. His plan was to remove his headquarters which sat in what is now the middle of the course opposite the new boathouse and training centre, buy the remaining necessary pieces of land, and move his marina and headquarters to the western end of the site, where he could build a larger marina catering for more long-boats as well as the current cabin cruiser clients. He felt that so long as the Sports Council and Lottery funding would meet the bulk of the cost, his contribution, just as had been the case with Lafarge, would meet the match funding requirements of any application.
Armed with the broad outline of David Sherriff’s scheme, Brian Armstrong, together with Derek Casey the then Chief Executive of the Sports Council and David Carpenter, met up for supper at my home in Nottingham, and there was general agreement that the project was do-able. However Derek Casey rightly made the point that however enthusiastic we were, our sport did not have the time or the expertise to see a project like this through, and whilst we had a reasonable idea of what it would cost, such projects always exceed budget, and the ARA were in no position to take such a risk. David Sherriff had generously offered to build the course for an agreed sum, and hand it over on completion to the ARA. Casey and Carpenter did not feel the Sports Council could underwrite the project this way, and in any case felt David’s budget might not cover the inevitable unplanned costs. That judgment was confirmed since the final cost was more than double David’s original estimate, mostly as a result of design changes and regulatory matters, plus changes of Sport England staffers over the ten years that could not have been anticipated. What Derek Casey did suggest, and I admit that both Brian and I were delighted to agree, that he, on behalf of Sports Council, should apply to the Secretary of State for what is known as a section 27 agreement, that would allow the Sports Council to take lottery money for such a project, in effect granting themselves the right to draw on such funding for a project of their own. It had a precedent with a scheme in Sheffield, so providing we put together a solid case, we had every chance of success. Drawing on his experience in these matters, particularly with his background as a previous International Manager, Brian Armstrong did a great job in putting together the case for the project, and was the key to the granting of the section 27 agreement.
In order to prove David’s match funding contribution, an independent financial evaluation was carried out, and confirmed that there was no financial gain for him as a direct result of the proposed contract with Sports Council, and that his contribution was adequate to meet match funding requirements. That in later years, the new and larger marina he built at the western end of the site, might have become profitable for him, was not relevant to our project. As it turned out, there were so many changes to the approach to construction, unforeseen snags in land purchase and transfers, his costs were far greater than he had bargained for, and he subsequently had to sell the new marina.
With the granting of the Secretary of State’s approval, an outline plan was put together, and a meeting with Brian and myself with the Chief Officer of the SODC Mr Butt, and another senior officer, Paula Fox, was arranged. They were clearly very supportive, and on their advice an outline planning application was prepared. For practical reasons, the application was submitted to SODC by David Sherriff as the major landowner involved. There were two major objections, one from the Sonning area who were concerned at the possible increase in traffic in an area already jammed at busy times in the day, but an even greater one from Eton College. They, who having had our support when they wished to create Dorney Lake, then sought to argue that they could offer the GB team all the facilities they needed, without building another course. A meeting was held with Rodney Watson their bursar who was the then chairman of the Dorney Lake Trust, and our team which included Di Ellis our Chairman, David Tanner, by then our International manager and others. With letters of support from some fairly distinguished old Etonians; the then Minister of State Kate Hoey; and other sportsmen and women, we finally made the Eton Authorities understand, that the training needs of the squad could never be met on a facility who’s priority was the needs of the school and the minimum number of commercial bookings needed to try to match the costs of running such a large facility.
When the objections of the Sonning Parish were satisfied by writing into the application, that the facility was for training only, and no regattas would be held, the traffic objections were withdrawn. Likewise, though I suspect with some reluctance, Eton withdrew their objections and planning consent was granted
One other objection resurfaced quite late in the day, for there had always been the Department of Transport’s aim for another river crossing. Theresa May the MP for the area south of the Thames put in a formal objection on the grounds that the Department of Transport should not have the option of a bridge, blocked by our facility. The usual discussions with departmental officials took place, and when it was clear that the presence of our course would not block a crossing, and that there were championship courses in the world with bridges straddling the course, Mrs May readily withdrew the Local Authority and Regional objections.
A trust was set up to act as the legal means by which the scheme could proceed, and which on completion would then lease the completed project to the ARA on a long lease. The sad thing was that by the time the trust was set up, Derek Casey the original CEO of Sports Council had left, and now what had become Sport England, had year by year, changed every officer who had been there at the start, and who had knowledge of the background of the project had left for other fields. We found ourselves dealing with officers who appeared to have no understanding of what had gone before, and failed, or refused, to recognise any moral obligation to our main sponsor David Sherriff, who had put enormous time and money into his long standing wish to do something great for our sport. Even worse, they looked on their dealings with him as purely a commercial matter, and he having agreed to assist them further in how they handled the financing of the project, found himself landed with an enormous tax bill for notional gains that he had never had. These new officers, just did not want to know, and left him with the bill, and a foul taste in his mouth, having genuinely tried to do the right thing by all of us. I very much regretted that we, the ARA, were in no position to fight his corner, caught between what we knew had been the original agreement, and effectively a new Sport England who made clear their attitude to what they now insisted was simply a commercial deal.
Sadly too, John Leivers retired from Lafarge, and his successor, just as with the changes at Sports England, felt no moral obligation to the project, and made abundantly clear his only concern was the commercial interests of Lafarge. This added greatly to costs, and caused no end of animosity between all parties.
We found too, that the Sailing and Canoe Clubs that had, what was understood at the time, casual use of the water, successfully claimed rights that in the end Sport England had to meet at considerable cost. Those clubs now have facilities as a result of the ARA project.
Such unintended costs inevitably reared their heads, and one of the biggest was the risk analysis. This great tome was supposed to cover every conceivable risk, but as I said to the consulting engineer, he’d left out the possibility that the San Andreas Fault under California, might just stretch across the Atlantic and wreck the course. He laughed and told me he did not feel he needed to go quite that far, but as I pointed out, he’d just about covered everything else. As necessary as risk assessments are, I cannot but feel that these things get out of hand with professionals covering their backs in case some totally and unlikely risk might come back and bite them.
At the scheme’s later stages I left the trust so that more qualified members Brian Armstrong and Mike Hart could now get down to details, and Brian and the architect did a great job on the training centre. At the time we thought we had provided enough car park spaces, 60 minimum as required by the SODC, but as time has gone on, the squad has grown, and the use of the centre has exceeded all estimates.
It had been suggested that the lake be named after David Sherriff, but he turned that down, and at his request it was named after our two great Olympians, Steve and Matthew. The Boathouse now rightly bears his name, for without his vision nothing would have happened. The facility was formally opened in April 2006.
This is not, and cannot be the whole story, for there is much that David Sherriff would be entitled to add, and much of the great contribution that Brian Armstrong made is confidential within the constraints of his role within the Sports Council. I have no doubt either that Derek Casey and many other officers of what became Sport England would feel that much of their efforts were undercut, firstly by the change of Government, and then by the total overhaul of the structure of Sport England that came just at the time when we needed some stability and continuity with the people we were dealing with.
However when I look back at the rise in British Rowing after the creation of Holme Pierrepont, and the quantum leap since Caversham has opened, I can’t help but feel proud of having been just a small part of these great projects.
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LIFE IN POLITICS
I’d been elected to the Nottingham City Council, then a unitary authority, in 1968, but Harold Wilson brought in a change of qualification rules, that meant since I lived just half a mile outside the City boundary, I could not defend my seat and I stood down in 1970. The Heath Government changed the rules back again, and I was re-elected in 1976, and further developed an interest in Housing, Estates Management and Public Transport. These sessions on a local authority gave me an insight as to what was possible, and what as an individual I could achieve or at least influence. This as I indicated earlier gave me the background and confidence to try for Parliament.
In the early seventies I had been rejected by the pre-1979 candidate selection process, which consisted of three people, with whom if your face didn’t fit, that was it. The Party however agreed to let me fight the 1979 election as a local candidate, and Margaret Thatcher subsequently changed the system of candidate approval giving me a second chance to show what I could do. The new system was a two day event which gave candidates a real chance to shine, and of course expose any weaknesses to the team of sitting MPs and Party Officials, such that whatever the outcome you felt you had had a fairer deal than the previous star chamber system.