At the opening of the Academy it was noted that the dyeworks had made the soil purple...All of the land that the academy, training pitches, 1st team buildings and presumably the land they donated back for the 6th form college had to be processed. This was all done onsite as you can't just dump it anymore and was reused there.
Richard Leese spoke, Tony Book officially opened it, and "guest of honour" was George Osborne who said the government was spending £10m on pitches around the country (the Academy itself had cost £50m). I was on second row and when Osborne was announced said loudly "Don't spoil it" without realising one of his junior ministers was just in front.
But this was years after Tom Bloxham was doing videos stood next to the canal about how Urban Splash could turn the area into New Islington, saying later "it's marvellous what you can do with a bit of imagination and £11m in government grants".
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