The Policy & Resources Committee were offered the above as being the social benefits for residents which would come from lending £22.9m to Saracens Copthall LLP. You could buy an awful of social benefits directly for that. It is, in Mr Mustard's opinion, a blind, a complete red herring to say that Saracens must have a posh new west stand otherwise those social benefits won't appear.
The below is what the Saracens Sports Foundation, a registered charity, linked but legally separate from commercial ventures with 'Saracens' in the name, have generated as income in the last 8 years.
Cast your minds back to 2013 when Saracens moved to Copthall Stadium and the new, state-of-the-art East Stand was built. Can you show Mr Mustard the surge in charitable activities that occurred at that time? No you can't, because it didn't happen. Why would it happen if a second stand was built? It wouldn't.
The charitable foundation does great works but it doesn't need the new West Stand to do them in, there is already the East Stand after all, and many of the other activities are in the community itself.
The community of Barnet, all 394,400 of us, do not need a new rugby stand. 3053 rugby fans will like it, but it isn't the role of a local authority to fund private rugby clubs backed by multi-millionaires. They funded the East Stand & they aren't broke, worth at least £500m between them. They just need to cash in a few shares or sell a tiny portion of their property portfolios, a 100ft yacht or a private plane.
Yours frugally
Mr Mustard
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