The Priory, Firoka, The City Council & (at last) Oxford Times

The money it costs the council to force Kassam to do something to the Priory, and something would I am guessing amount to very little, is unfortunately better spent elsewhere.

Morally the right thing thing to do is to force Kassam to uphold the terms of the lease he signed, unfortunately I think all of us would agree that it is better that rather than wasting money on a court case to force a greedy, morally corrupt, grubby little man to do the bare minimum that will benefit no one the council spend the money on services for old people, children etc.

It’s one of those s**t situations, it always will be till we get rid of the human plague that is Firoz Kassam.
 
The OCC are morelly inept at dealing with such issues unless it involves students in some way or another. They are petrified of FK maybe it has something to do with the way he got involved with OUFC in the first place and how he was allowed to milk us for everything he could.
 
Grumpy Git said:
Can the council order him to close the hotel? He was supposed to put the priory right as part of the hotel being built. He hasn’t so remove any licences he needs to operate.
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This is exactly what OCC should have done ages ago. Try bending planning rules yourself and there'll be on you like a shot. However, when the big boys start pushing they run for the hills. OCC should be ashamed of themselves.
 
Foley said:
That's the theory.
Kassam is good at getting lawyers to contest such things which is why I guess the council are reluctant to take him on (in the current economic climate imagine if they spend £10's thousands and lose)
What the Council should have tried to gave done was to tie in the Priory work before the hotel building could start.
Somebody in here suggested that in real life Kassam was a nice guy?
Showing his real spots here I reckon.
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I know OCC are what they are, but is there potential to temporarily close the hotel down to get Kassam's attention because it has no license to operate? Perhaps serve a notice because the lease has been breached. Or review the lease for break clauses. Or even look into Health and Safety across the Grenoble Road estate? I'm sure a little pressure to look at the compliance of the stadium, the hotel, etc would be a subtle way to make his lessors life hard, and thus his, a little more awkward than he has it. I don't wish any businesses harm and assume they all run a tight and legal ship, and this is a rather sad exercise in fiscal hypocrisy.

The man only responds when he can't get his "munney", so sadly the only way to get his attention is when his pockets are threatened. Unhappy lessors make an unhappy lessee. Sadly, it should not come to that.

He comes across as nice when he gets what he wants, when he doesn't.... I'll leave it there. :)
 
I think we should all start using the phrase ‘a Kassam ’ as an expression for anything unfinished, decaying or left to rot.

For example, a dilapidated old car on someone’s driveway which hasn’t been driven for years, ‘a kassam’
a rotting hollowed out oak tree, ‘a kassam’
a botched diy job, ‘a kassam’
a road with masses of potholes, ‘a kassam’
the leaking roof on my garage. ‘a kassam’

All should be known as ‘a kassam’
 
Gary Baldi said:
I know OCC are what they are, but is there potential to temporarily close the hotel down to get Kassam's attention because it has no license to operate? Perhaps serve a notice because the lease has been breached.
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I don't believe, having voluntary chosen to not action clauses to prevent a. the start of building and b. subsequently the opening of the hotel, OCC will struggle to get a license revocation or shut the hotel on the basis of the planning commitments. As for the lease, it includes building maintenance iirc. No idea what enforcement capabilities are attached to that.

@Foley - the point regarding your post above is that OCC planning dept had twice the occasion to make Kassam fix the Priory and failed to exercise their responsibility. On the second occasion I can prove that Oxford Preservation and English Heritage were confident that a deal had been done between OCC and Firoka (with the involvement of a consultant, Nicholas Worrledge) that made registering the Priory on the EH at-risk register unnecessary.

Since the OM doesn't seem to have much enthusiasm to probe (they have my information for a year) perhaps we could glean something from a FOI request, does anyone have experience of making one?
 
Paul Cannell said:
I don't believe, having voluntary chosen to not action clauses to prevent a. the start of building and b. subsequently the opening of the hotel, OCC will struggle to get a license revocation or shut the hotel on the basis of the planning commitments. As for the lease, it includes building maintenance iirc. No idea what enforcement capabilities are attached to that.

@Foley - the point regarding your post above is that OCC planning dept had twice the occasion to make Kassam fix the Priory and failed to exercise their responsibility. On the second occasion I can prove that Oxford Preservation and English Heritage were confident that a deal had been done between OCC and Firoka (with the involvement of a consultant, Nicholas Worrledge) that made registering the Priory on the EH at-risk register unnecessary.

Since the OM doesn't seem to have much enthusiasm to probe (they have my information for a year) perhaps we could glean something from a FOI request, does anyone have experience of making one?
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i have
 
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Lest we forget....yesterdays online OM

https://www.Oxfordm**l.co.uk/news/1...bling-priory-pub-at-kassam-stadium/?ref=fbshr
 
Anyone on here fancy getting in touch with the council and asking the question, they NEED to be challenged on this, it simply isn’t good enough, the little runt has had things his own way for far too long, come on lets do this
 
PS If anyone else carries on like Kassam is they’d get the book thrown at them!!!
 
never mind a £2500 fine ... it should be the cost of, as per his lease contract, ensuring the Priory is fit for use, and then double that figure, as he breached planning permission requirements for the building of the hotel next to the Priory.... of course the slum landlords teflon coating will as usual, ensure nothing sticks

even if by some miracle Ox city council did manage to impose a 7 or 8 figure penalty via the courts, Id bet his tenants would end up paying for it one way or another
 
What is the point of an orchard in that part of Oxford?

OCC really are just a less threatening version of the Maybot
 
I guess this is what happens when a bunch of spineless idiots are elected into power. Absolute disgrace. Who love to see what papers were released to the Oxford Fail in response to the FOI. Would be even more interested to see any that weren't!

Simple solution as mentioned lots of times previously: hotel operating license revoked with immediate effect until Priory is refurbished to OCC satisfaction. Which part of that are OCC finding so hard to understand ...... or is there something we are not being told?
 
If you're talking about some stitch-up involving a consultant employed by Kassam and some of his former colleagues in OCC you are barking up the wrong tree. The Oxford Fail has had ample time to check what the assurances were that led to English Heritage declining to list the Priory as at risk ay the same time that OCC allowed the hotel to open and gave away all it's cards.
 
Paul Cannell said:
If you're talking about some stitch-up involving a consultant employed by Kassam and some of his former colleagues in OCC you are barking up the wrong tree. The Oxford Fail has had ample time to check what the assurances were that led to English Heritage declining to list the Priory as at risk ay the same time that OCC allowed the hotel to open and gave away all it's cards.
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I didn't even know that tree existed! I was thinking more along the lines of did OCC somehow screw up the planning conditions to such extent that FK knows that he can easily wriggle around them? A sort of hiding incompetence exercise. Just speculation on my part but that's always likely to happen when such an apparently simple solution goes ignored.
 
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