TORQUAY UNITED SUPPORTERS TRUST

The council only own the mud! The buildings are the club's.

www.tust.co.uk/news-minutes/tust-chairman-s-update-breaking-news

TUST CHAIRMAN'S UPDATE, BREAKING NEWS!

Dear Members,

We planned to send out to you a July newsletter this week, to update you on the many things TUST have been busy with over the summer. Not least, the different initiatives to improve supporter engagement with the club and TUCST, and to promote TUFC in building on its' connection with the local community. eg. The PLFF Community Outreach project; a new Fanszone and hubs; TUST brochure promoting TUFC; Matchday Ambassadors pilot idea; a 'Great Escape of 2001 legends fun evening' planned for September 7th at No10s, for all supporters.

However, in light of all of the significant and momentous breaking news items during the last week or so, I feel it is more important to update you today with reference to these alone. I am sure many of you are concerned, as we are, to learn more.

Firstly, I would like to confirm that, despite our ongoing efforts to engage with the owner and the club to establish clarity, we had NO previous knowledge of the Truro City groundshare arrangement until the statement on the club website on Sunday morning. Staff at the club confirm that they had no idea either, Truro City fans have concurred with this.

Secondly, the consequent news of the 'Gordon Oliver Award' evening at Plainmoor was also 'out of the blue!'

Today, the news that the new Stadium plan will be unveiled at the Mayor's Forum tomorrow evening was also the FIRST we have heard of it. The only thing we can confirm that we have been repeatedly told is that the 5 year plan to build a new stadium is still the owner's medium term aim, although there have been delays, and that Nightingale Park is the preferred site.

Up to yesterday, the mayor's agenda did not include this item! We were keeping a close eye on this, as we had heard that it might be included.

This does not give people much time, but I would ask as many of you as possible who are interested in the future of TUFC, whether it be in a new stadium or at Plainmoor, to make every effort to attend the Mayors' Forum tomorrow night to help you, and TUST, to make an informed response to what is said.

6PM.,THURSDAY 26TH JULY
MAYOR'S FORUM,
NEW STADIUM PLAN,
ROSETOR ROOM,
RIVIERA CONFERENCE CENTRE,
TORQUAY

We, TUST, will be there to represent our members and to report back to those who cannot attend and to exiles through our July Newsletter, which we hope to publish shortly.

We are also waiting for further response from TUFC re a letter we sent yesterday, previous to today's news re the Mayor's Forum. The email was sent to senior staff, to be forwarded to Clarke Osborne. The questions members have asked us to raise were briefly as follows:-

Radio Commentaries: What provision (if any) have you put in place to provide an alternative match day commentary, as Radio Devon have withdrawn coverage?

Truro City Ground share: Is this a previously agreed and paid-for arrangement, or an additional commercial arrangement??
Who will be responsible for the stewarding/catering on match days?
Was this something previously muted, or a case of Truro approaching us at the last minute for help?

Gordon Oliver Trophy; It would be helpful to have some rationale behind the naming of the trophy. The naming of the trophy seems a somewhat curious decision...this merely gives rise to further speculation.

We will send you these questions in full, together with, hopefully, any responses received in our July Newsletter.

We have also emphasised to the owner, and management, that it would be useful where possible, with the regular meetings we have, that such information is divulged in order that we can provide feedback and react to supporters and members questions appropriately.

MAYOR'S MEETING TOMORROW WILL COVER MANY THINGS, BUT WE ARE TOLD THAT TUFC AND A NEW STADIUM IS ON THE AGENDA!! TRY TO BE THERE. GIVE US YOUR VIEWS VIA THE USUAL EMAIL ADDRESS.


Many thanks,
Michel Thomas
Chairman, TUST
Supporter, TUFC

Tweet from Kevin Foster today that he met with TUST regarding the latest development proposals.

A message from the TUST Chairman following our Statement of 27th August

Following feedback and as a follow-up to the short note issued by the TUST board yesterday, I felt it was prudent to expand on the current position of TUST and its’ relationship with the club of late.

We have all been working very hard, much of this of necessity behind the scenes, towards protecting our club and preparing to be able to help build it back towards a position that the fans deserve, whilst juggling to maintain some diplomacy, and endeavouring to establish some critical and positive engagement with the owners. I acknowledge it has been a difficult task keeping our members informed of every action being undertaken by the TUST Board.

As you will no doubt be aware, we had a very positive meeting with Clarke Osborne (CO) in May where a commitment to meet with the TUST board on a regular basis was agreed. Since that time, he has not been present at any of our meetings held with club representatives although he was at the club when we last met (with representatives), but did not attend the meeting. This is clearly a position that has not gone unnoticed by myself or the TUST board as a whole and therefore we continue to review our approach accordingly.

We were made aware of the presence of CO and his team at the recent Mayor’s Forum and ensured we had a presence there to listen to the plans being discussed and to ask questions. We were offered a meeting by the CO team at the forum to discuss in more detail the proposed plans for the 'Torbay arena.' However, as yet, despite initial encouragement and a willingness to engage, the representatives have not arranged such a meeting despite the TUST board providing various dates to meet.


We note that letters to the club and CO concerning various issues such as: the proposed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) national launch, members' questions and concerns, community outreach and Fanszone proposals have on the whole been unanswered, or responded to very slowly. We have, however, had a very good working relationship with the hard working staff at the club, as with Torquay United Sports in the Community Trust. The imminent Fanszone hub launch and the new trial 'club ambassador' run, being there to welcome, assist and talk to supporters at the entrances, is a good example of this. These are TUST led joint initiatives.

Meanwhile,we have successfully, up to now, lobbied our local politicians and councillors. This has been ongoing for a long time now. We have encouraged them to be aware of the facts and be vigilant in dealing with the future of TUFC, Plainmoor and any new stadium proposals.

Thirdly, on the wider front, we have been in constant dialogue with our national association, Supporters Direct and Football Supporters Federation(soon to merge). We have been receiving advice and support from the very top level continuously on how we should develop our strategy, and in preparing any future financial business plan if ever required. We have attended summits and conferences and networked with a number of league and non league clubs, who are friends of Torquay United and have shared experiences. The minutes of our meeting have reported on this. In fact, it might be worth reading the most recent ones, which we are at the point of sending out this week.

Finally, we have also, most importantly, been networking with, and obtaining feedback from, the local community. Not only with the loyal supporters at the ground, but also those that sadly, and maybe understandably, for various reasons attend no longer. As well, we have spoken to many people who have had significant experience of and leading roles in the past history of our club, for their advice and to receive their support. Furthermore, we have recently begun to engage with local businesses, and our signing up of 6 corporate members in the first few weeks of our new initiative has been very encouraging.Their names will appear in our new brochure, currently being finalised.

To remind you, our small team of board members and our working parties are working professionally and industriously, despite their own busy work and family commitments, and on a voluntary basis. The aim, as always, is to develop TUST's ability to be there to support, or seek to enable , the long term sustainability and good governance of our club in whichever way it is called upon to do so.

We do need your support, and appreciate every supporter who joins our cause and every member who contributes either financially or otherwise to our remit.

Kind regards,

Michel

I see it is being reported elsewhere that Kevin Mowat and Liam Montgomery from above are going to update Councillors about the proposals for the football club on 26th September but cannot yet find reference to this on the council website.

Thanks for that - I suppose the gist of these plans will come out in due course then. I see a suggestion elsewhere that the club will merge with Truro and then play over at Truro while our new sustainable stadium is being built. lol

link - September newsletter