ARCHIVE: Not in My Backyard
Are the good people of Horwich guilty of that middle class crime of ‘Nimby-ism”? White Love’s co-editor takes a stance on the Horwich debate and says yes they are.
‘Ethel Belch’, God Bless her could have wrote that letter (opposite) to the Bolton Evening News anytime over the last few weeks. Indeed there seems to be a glut of ‘concerned’ Horwich residents writing pompous letters to the Bolton Evening News. We’ve not seen such correspondence in the letters page since the Tory Poll Tax was introduced all those years ago, and a number of readers wrote equally pompous diatribes castigating those of us who dare question and refuse to pay the damn thing.
If we are to believe that those letter writers represent the spectrum of opinion in Horwich then it’s time that we took a stand on behalf of the supporters of Bolton Wanderers and put the point across that the recent problems are not the fault of the supporters but the result of bad planning from those who sought to relocate us to Horwich. It seems that we are witnessing the outbreak of ‘Nimby-ism’ in the area. You can imagine the logic behind some of the recent rhetoric, from the furious biro’s of the Horwich chattering classes...
“Yes, a spanking new stadium for Wanderers is a great idea, yes, indeed it is, what with the team doing well and all that..”
“...and they’re building a multiplex, Asda superstore and everything. “
“It’s about time the Wanderers joined the twentieth century. I mean it’s nearly over now...”
“It’s going to be great in the future, having a new stadium to play in... BUT NOT IN MY BACKYARD!”
“Put yourselves in the shoes of a typical Wanderers supporter, from the East side of Bolton. Someone who finds that his beloved club has without any form of consultation, moved to a new stadium in Horwich.”
Speaking on behalf of those supporters who travel by car to the ground, put yourselves in the shoes of a typical Wanderers supporter, from the East side of Bolton. Someone who finds that his beloved club has without any form of consultation, moved to a new stadium in Horwich. Someone who now faces a two-hour journey to see a match, someone who perhaps can’t afford to pay the extortionate car-parking fees or face another hour long wait to get off the car-parks near the ground, that turns a Saturday afternoon or a Tuesday night into the equivalent of a regular away match and ask yourself where would you park your car to avoid such a fiasco as we have seen at the end of a match? Hmmm, I thought so!
Considering the benefits to be gained from developments at Red Moss, the odd afternoon or evenings inconvenience is a very small price to pay. Compared with mass murder, civil war and B.S.E., the additional traffic around Horwich is small beer on the grand scale of things. But blaming the supporters is simply looking at the symptoms rather than the root cause of the problems. It would seem many of the writers are still guilty of stereotyping football fans as the lowest of the low. When we put on a replica kit or a season ticket in our pocket we don’t stop becoming civilised human beings with a complete lack of morals. Heaven help them if they have any Black or Asian neighbours! All the “Ethel Belch’s” of this world are doing is creating an “Us & Them” situation, between residents and supporters, one situation that we don’t really need do we?
Many local people seem to forget that “We”, the ordinary Joe’s didn’t actually ask to move to Horwich. That decision was taken by the club, council and Orbit Developments many moons ago.
There has never been any supporters referendum on the move, and all we are doing is responding in the best way to some very trying and puzzling circumstances. If as a Horwich resident, you feel the need to protest then direct your scorn on the organ grinders who moved us here, not on the monkeys who face fines and frustration on top of already exorbitant prices to see the team at ‘home’. It would make more sense directing your letters at the club than at the letters page of the Evening News. While you are at it, ask them when they are going to get their backsides in gear and build the proposed railway link that we are desperate for. It seems a very perverse situation where a supermarket, McDonalds, multiplex cinema et al, can be built in no time at all, but a railway station for the fans remains on the back-burner. This should have been a major priority for the development and should have been built in tandem with the new stadium.
It’s about time the residents of Horwich showed some tolerance and understanding, especially for those of us who have had to make more than the odd sacrifice to the Temple of Premier League greed over the Summer months.
First appeared in White Love Issue 18, October 1998.