‘Keep Newcastle United at a vastly expanded St James’ Park – Going down the political route’ | OneFootball

I have just read David Walsh’s article on the expansion of St James’ Park at the expense of Leazes Terrace.

Congratulations on such an incredibly well thought out and put together piece!

It contains so much common sense that, sadly, in keeping with 90% of local councillors’ and other politicians’ policies to keep the Toon a vibrant, living place – such as their traffic management schemes, which seem specifically designed to deter people from coming into Toon – it stands no chance of cutting any ice.

The sentiment contained, written from the heart, and I’m sure, echoed by tens of thousands of Geordies….you can then add the countless local businesses which totally rely on matchday trade to survive.

There IS a solution to this problem, though.

At the next local council elections, or even General Election if sooner, we form a single-issue political party – let’s call it (say) The Geordie Common Sense Party.

With the sole objective to champion the unique benefits of keeping St James’ Park on its current site and allowing the club to expand the capacity regardless of any historical planning opposition.

As David Walsh so correctly points out, the Toon is awash with superb architecture – so much of it more impressive, visible and accessible than Leazes Terrace! And keeping St James’ Park as the NUFC stadium absolutely trumps forcing a move because of antiquated planning regulations.

Using modern social media, such a political party would take little organising, would be guaranteed to win every ward, and, in fact, would probably only need to be threatened, for incumbent politicians to come to their senses – let alone hang on to their perks – and agree to rubber stamp whatever planning was required, including the demolition of Leazes Terrace and the use of some green belt land.

In the 2022 Newcastle City elections, the total number of votes cast for every party contesting the 51 seats was less than 70,000.

Similar, and absolutely typical, apathetic turnout was seen in North Tyneside, Gateshead and South Tyneside.

I am utterly convinced that a significant proportion of those 70,000 voters would be Toon fans and could be persuaded, along with thousands more Newcastle United fans, who could have but didn’t vote, to temporarily abandon their political persuasions in a one-off election to guarantee the future of St James’ Park.

This is an opportunity which must NOT be wasted.