Build a Bonfire: How Football Fans United to Save Brighton and Hove Albion by Hodson Paul & North Stephen

Author:Hodson, Paul & North, Stephen [Hodson, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Mainstream Publishing
Published: 2011-11-03T16:00:00+00:00

32. ‘Don’t Vote Bellotti’

THE SEAGULL PARTY

TIM PITT: Charlton and the Valley Party were the inspiration behind it – the fact that they had actually brought football into politics rather than the other way around and that was the first time football supporters were given some kind of credit as having an influence in the way that the local authority was run. It was early May 1996.

We were initially going to launch ourselves as the Albion Party then. Really as a lobby group.

I then happened to see an item that said Bellotti was up for reselection at Eastbourne Park which is where he was the county councillor. I went to a BISA meeting soon after this article appeared with a draft press release saying that we would be looking to put up a candidate against Bellotti if he was reselected at Eastbourne Park, and launched it as the Albion Party with that press statement.

I got letters from BISA, from Roy Chuter, the official Supporters Club from Sarah Watts, Tony Hylands, John Campbell and the National Federation of Football Supporters wrote one, all urging Lib Dems down in Eastbourne Park not to select David Bellotti.

Then I had a phone call to say that Bellotti had gone absolutely ape shit on the Saturday, which is when these letters started arriving on the doormats of all the Lib Dems down there.

We all turned up at the selection meeting down at Eastbourne Park and we pretty much knew how it was going to turn out, but I did actually hear how the voting went and it was sizeable against Bellotti, significantly.

CHRIS JONES: He lost to a woman who looked like everyone’s favourite granny, she was five feet tall.

KEVIN SHERWOOD: He pushed the suicide button on his political career. We went along to the by-election and that old girl was more or less on her last legs.

TIM PITT: So the great chant was ‘There’s Only One Olive Woodall’! She came out; she was absolutely marvellous; she loved every minute of it. I hope it conveyed a positive impression of football supporters to her as well.

We then heard the news that Pevensey didn’t have a Lib Dem candidate and Bellotti was seeking the Pevensey candidacy. But they had to go with him simply because he was the only one.

On 5 March 1997 the Argus reported that the fans would stand a candidate against Bellotti and the next day the letters threatening litigation were received from Bellotti via the club’s solicitors, Eversheds. Deliberate tactics or just coincidental timing?

Sarah Watts received a letter and I had it faxed through to me which was on a Wednesday or Thursday. I spoke to Roy Chuter, who had got one as well, and Tony Hylands.

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