Southend United: Fossetts Farm and Other False Starts

A Cycle of Petitions and Promises

In February 2014, Southend United chairman Ron Martin declared that building work on a new 22,000-seater stadium would start in May. A developer, he said, would be appointed within two weeks. It was another promise in a long line of them, and one that supporters had learned to disbelieve. The club’s recent history was a familiar cycle: one week, reports of another winding-up petition from HMRC; the next, an optimistic forecast for the long-awaited move from Roots Hall.

HMRC’s petitions became a recurring feature, with two more arriving in 2015 alone. Martin blamed “over-zealous behaviour” from the tax authorities, a claim that held some water as the club always settled its debts. But his stadium pronouncements were another matter entirely. The move to Fossetts Farm was first proposed shortly after his property development firm, Martin Dawn, bought the club in November 1998. Planning permission for a £100m development, complete with a 21,000-seater stadium, hotel, and retail outlets, was granted by Southend Borough Council in 2007. The target completion date was the start of the 2008-09 season.

That deadline, along with several others, came and went. The 2008 global financial crisis provided a convenient excuse for the delays. Scaled-back plans were submitted in 2011, but the project remained stubbornly hypothetical. As one exasperated fan asked the Southend Echo in 2013, “How many more times are we going to hear about winding-up orders one week then work is going to start on the new stadium the next?” The only stadium build reported that year was a Roots Hall-shaped birthday cake for a 60-year-old supporter.

Sainsbury's and a Stalled Superstore

The project’s financing became a saga of its own. Supermarket giant Sainsbury’s replaced the Bank of Scotland as the main financial backer, at one point stumping up £2.5m to help the club settle its tax bill. The plan hinged on Sainsbury’s building a new superstore on the site of Roots Hall, which required purchasing adjacent land occupied by Prospects College. This deal became an emblem of the entire development’s inertia. For seven years, Sainsbury’s renewed and then failed to act on its option to buy the land. College CEO Neil Bates grew publicly frustrated with the repeated delays, while the council threatened to withdraw its support for compulsory land sales.

By November 2014, council leader Ron Woodley had had enough. “They have had seven years,” he said. “Enough is enough.” A month later, Bates announced he had sold the land to another party after Sainsbury’s declined a final opportunity to complete the purchase. The saga took a strange turn when it was rumoured Lidl were the buyers, only for rival chain Aldi to confirm the news. That deal eventually fell through, but the point was made. In response to the collapse of the Sainsbury’s deal, Martin announced he had spent £500,000 to buy the London Soccerdome, a former David Beckham academy, with plans to spend £2m erecting it as a new training facility for the Shrimpers. It was a classic piece of counter-spin, a tangible development to distract from the intractable problems at Fossetts Farm.

New Partners, Same Old Story

A flicker of genuine optimism appeared in 2015. After the Sainsbury’s partnership withered, Martin announced in July that he was in “advanced talks with property company British Land.” They would, he claimed, pay for the new stadium and “breathe fresh air into the project.” British Land’s involvement seemed to add credibility. New plans were drawn up for a 21,000-seat stadium, a hotel, cinema, offices, and housing. The club even put the plans on public display in October 2015, with Martin insisting the move would now proceed regardless of what happened with the sale of Roots Hall.

A planning consultant, Mary Power, suggested that if all went well, construction could begin by the end of 2016 and take 18 to 24 months. The team’s promotion to League One via the play-offs in May 2015, a “£1m payday” according to the Echo, added to the positive feeling. A Plymouth Argyle fan might recognise the pattern of a chairman with significant personal stakes in a perpetually delayed stadium development.

It did not last. The promised planning application, due in December 2015, never materialised. By August 2016, a fanzine editor noted it was almost a year since the public exhibition and still nothing had been submitted. New rival leisure developments were announced nearby, potentially competing with Fossetts Farm for council approval. Now, Martin has fallen silent, fuelling rumours that British Land has walked away, although this is unconfirmed. The brief optimism has evaporated.

Southend United are currently four points above the League One relegation zone. The club’s latest accounts, to July 2015, show total debts of £14.3m, of which £9.7m is owed to Martin Dawn, a company owned by Ron Martin himself. The promotion windfall will appear in the next set of accounts, but the club has consistently posted annual losses of £1-2m. After almost two decades of promises, Fossetts Farm remains little more than an idea, and fans could be forgiven for finding the whole affair deeply tedious.