For the next few weeks BN is looking back at the summer of 2014. David Keyte had sold Hereford United to Tommy Agombar and his associates including Andy Lonsdale. It soon became apparant that all was not well at Edgar Street.
For today's 'episode' we go back to June 24th.
The Feltham Arena Abomination & Andy Lonsdale
Below is a view of Andy Lonsdale written by a Feltham resident. Lonsdale is currently helping Tommy Agombar at Hereford United.
I was really surprised to see he has surfaced again, via an article in a local news source here, on your Football Club. He claimed he wouldn't walk away from the mountain he left us with, but he did. I kid you not on the mountain thing! It was as tall as people's houses, and placed a vast blot on Google Maps! He claims in a publication, it was just 6 inches taller than allowed.... clearly to him, 6 inches is his own unique measurement, where 1 inch actually equals 1 METRE! The company (held in his wife's name) that the work was carried out under, then went on to liquidate, after providing inaccurate accounts, so that it appears that it can't come back on him - A regular part of his M.O. it seems.
He fell off the radar for a while, before buying a chip shop, down the road here, just 5 minutes away from the Feltham Arena site, with a name that simply mocked the locals. I bet he laughed his head off every day at that. Cushty Independent (Fish and Chip) Traders! He sure had a 'cushty' deal by mugging us all off, here! It operated for a short time only, and then that went too - to be replaced by another Fish and Chip business, for which he no doubt he gained some cash from too... I've no idea if that business is connected with him, or anyone to do with him.
Before us - he damaged Green Belt land in Surrey, and has liquidated several companies prior to that, while using other companies to apparently hide his actions - like he did here, by being a part of another football team, to secure a Tenancy At Will, on the land with our Council. He was meant to remove an old stadium from here...and create several football pitches for the community. He failed to mention he had no experience in that area of construction - (only construction waste!), was a disqualified Director, and had a previous conviction for Fly Tipping.
He didn't do any of what he promised the locals or the Council. He buried most of the stadium under builder's waste and construction rubble, that may, possibly, be contaminated. He damaged and felled, very old trees, as his waste mountain grew. We speculate that he buried those whole, where they fell too, as he expanded far beyond the previous stadium's boundaries. The drainage was laughable, and a qualified person noted this, and informed the Council of it. It ended up flooding the surrounding streets whenever it rained. And when it rained so much at the beginning of this year - there were small mudslides, and flooding down the roads....but at least it lowered the height of the mountain - however that only revealed the true content of the amount of dangerous rubble there! Photos are scattered about the web on this issue. Currently the mountain is littered with broken glass, porcelain, tiles, bricks, metal spikes, blocks, slabs, and other waste, etc. It's a disgrace!
I personally would take all he says, and does, with extreme caution. This man, it seems, has no thoughts about destroying things, for his own gain. The residents formed a group called The Feltham Arena Residents User Group, and created a Facebook Group of the same name, to keep people informed of what was, and is, going on up there, and they have been working hard ever since to get things sorted out. At one point it was so bad, that the locals ended up physically protesting, in person, blocking the streets to stop articulated lorries coming through and dumping more waste, while they spent years begging the Council to stop the company, and investigate his actions.
If you want to see the damage, Google image "Feltham Arena". You will see photos of the vast wasteland he left, as well as the stadium he was meant to take away. If you Google map the same, with "TW14", you will see a large beige patch in the middle of what was a green space. That is what he did to Feltham. If you Google map "Pyebush Roundabout, Beaconsfield" - there is a large patch of once green, now bare land - also the handiwork of Mr Lonsdale. These are NOT isolated cases....although he, to the best of the local's knowledge, has only been prosecuted for the Surrey Fly-Tipping.
Now the locals want to see the land returned to a large, open, green, community space, with just simple restoration to the running track, and a very small scale, low key, outdoor, sporting facility, to be built within the perimeters of the old Stadium site (not the very much extended site created by Andy!). We've all had enough of all the supposed construction works, and of the heavy vehicles, the noise, the dirt, and the work there, and we want a stop to it. But the Council now say they want to build a large sporting hub over it all, with a few possible sporting warehouses! We assume, it is in a bid to recoup costs of what it will take to put it all right, and to remove most of the 73,000 cubic metres of towering waste he left there. The locals don't want it, and have voiced this. They also simply won't be able to use sporting warehouses after their club hours, and certainly not for free - like the running track is now, not to mention that the buildings simply won't fit in with the whole green area, or the fact that the land is surrounded entirely by residential properties. It will destroy the green space, and several through routes completely, if they go ahead, while creating traffic issues, and parking issues, that no doubt the locals will be penalised for. The locals are desperate for support, in order to stop the Council doing this to Feltham and the people who have suffered enough. If Andy had done what he had promised the Community in the first place, the residents wouldn't be facing this mammoth battle against the Council, to stop them building on the green space.....and Andy... thus far - is getting away with all the cash, and the whole disgusting affair, absolutely scott free!
I just don't know why he get's away with this time and time again. It would be so great, if everyone who has had dealings with him, past and present, could all get together, and bring him to justice.