CPST meeting with CPFC 10 December 2019
The Trust had a meeting with the Club on 10 December, the notes of which are as follows:-
The Trust thanked the Club and Roy Hodgson for his attendance at the Trust AGM.
Ticketing Issues
The Trust welcomed the introduction of the ‘choose seats’ option on the website, which while enabling seat selection for away games also allowed a view of how many tickets remained available in each block. The early start of sales also meant there was more opportunity to sell the full allocation of tickets which the Trust always encouraged the Club to take. The Club confirmed that the ‘choose seats’ option was being used on a trial basis at the moment, but would be available all next season. The Trust raised concerns again, that those supporters with the highest number of loyalty points were, online, often only offered seats in the worst blocks (e.g. at Watford and Southampton). There had also been occasions where the first sales appeared to have a very low points requirement. The Club indicated they were not aware of any cases where appropriate point holders had not got a ticket. The Club indicated that next season all supporters would receive a new electronic card when purchasing a season ticket, which could delay sales until March.
Changes to Kick off Times
The Trust recognised that kick off times had to change to meet TV requirements and Amazon Prime but wanted to know if 8.00 pm remained the standard time for evening kick offs. The Brighton 7.45 change was confirmed as due to Police requirements. There appeared no reason for the identified 7.30 kick off for the Southampton game. The Club confirmed that 8.00 was the normal fall back time and couldn’t confirm why the Southampton game had been identified as 7.30. It would review this.
Under 23’s Fixture Venues and Academy Ground Development
The Trust welcomed the recent use of Dulwich Hamlet for the under 23’s as it had easy access, provided covered areas for supporters and overall better facilities than Beckenham. The Club said the use of DH was limited due to their number of matches etc. The Club confirmed that the application for the ‘Goals’ development appeared to be going well and that this would provide good facilities for supporters to watch U 23 games.
Sainsbury’s and the Main Stand Development
The Trust re-iterated that it was sure supporters would be willing to take part in appropriate action to publicise Sainsbury’s stance on the sale of a small section of land, which appears to be partially responsible for holding up the main stand development. The Club noted this potential support.
Premier League Sustainability Ratings
The Trust referred to the meeting in August where it had indicated that the Club should produce a much more comprehensive overall environmental policy which was bound to be needed as a matter of course in the near future. This was now been confirmed and emphasised by the PL Sustainability Ratings process. The Club indicated it was disappointed with its poor position, as identified, and considered some elements provided by the Club had not been considered as part of the process. However, it was reviewing both large scale options such as fully renewable power sources for the stadium and small scale issues such as significantly reducing plastic use, with re-usable cups, paper containers and bags etc.
AOB
The Trust welcomed the fact that the Club had at last agreed to pay the London Living Wage for casual staff.
The Club confirmed it was not part of a pilot scheme for the use of facial recognition. The Trust indicated that at this point in time that its use, with no agreed code of conduct or control of operation, was unacceptable. The Trust indicated that should the Club consider the use of such technology it should be widely publicised in advance. The Club fully noted the Trust’s concerns.
The Trust indicated that at its AGM that there had been concerns expressed about queues for entrance into the Arthur Waite stand. This was a product of too few stewards to carry out searches and also due to irregular supporters causing delay through to not knowing how to operate turnstiles etc. The Trust suggested a ‘season ticket only’ turnstile. The Club said it would consider this.
The Trust identified that the Arsenal programme at the recent Palace game confirmed that their head of recruitment had met with fan groups to explain and discuss their transfer policy. The Club indicated that Dougie Freedman was unlikely to be available for a similar event at Palace.
The Trust reported that both lights were not working on the pedestrian exit onto Clifton Road from the Sainsbury’s car park causing safety issues for fans leaving this way. The Club will follow this up although it is Sainsbury’s responsibility.
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