Guildford News

Sunday, June 04, 2006

STOP THE STADIUM PRESS RELEASE

“Stop the Stadium: Save Stoke Park” – Press Release (30 May 2006)

The Appeal against the Council’s decision to reject the application by Mr Harper to build an 8000 capacity multipurpose stadium on Stoke Park has now taken four days, and will continue on Thursday 1st June next week from 9.30am. This is substantially longer than originally planned and will increase the costs incurred by Guildford Borough Council.

It is now clear that the Stadium application has little support in the Borough as:
Objections to this proposal at the application stage, in the form of individual letters, e-mails and pro-forma letters, were over 1200 against 169 in favour
When the Appeal was announced, the Inspector received a further 198 letters of which 195 were against the application with 3 in favour.
The local Football Club was not present at nor made formal representation to the Inquiry and has now distanced itself from the proposal as quoted in the Surrey Advertiser 26 May.
About 20 visitors have attended the Inquiry each day and nearly all, if not all, have been visibly against this application
Many Residents’ Associations from across Guildford, the Campaign for Rural England, the Surrey Wildlife Trust and the Borough and County Council have addressed the Inquiry and stated their opposition to the application
The only evidence of support for the Stadium is a survey made by Mr Harper which did not indicate on the cards filled in by residents, the location or size of his proposed stadium.

On the evidence presented to the Inquiry, it is wrong to describe the proposed Stadium as a football stadium. The local team does not wish to play there and there is no contract in place with the Applicant to allow it to do so, even if it could afford it. The Applicant’s intention, as stated to the Inquiry, is for a multipurpose stadium including various sporting and non-sporting events. Beyond this, the exact purpose of the stadium is not clear and no local rugby or other sports teams, or entertainment promoters are directly supporting the application.

As reported in the Surrey Advertiser on 26, the Council will shortly have upgraded its football facilities at Spectrum to a level which allows the local team to play there in their current and higher leagues. This upgrade will include plumbing work for a new match officials’ dressing room and a public toilet block. Also the club chiefs are currently negotiating a contract to install 125 covered seats on the existing concrete terracing. Secretary Paul Milton confirmed to the Surrey Advertiser: “We have a C grading now but if all this work is done it will give us an A”.

The heavy development costs were reviewed by the Council and Mr. Drakeford, a resident and retired senior bank executive, who concluded that use of the Stadium would have to be heavy, and more than once a week, to ensure that it made an adequate financial return, unlike the loss-making stadium in Woking. In the view of Surrey County Council’s Highways representative, such usage would bring chaos to local roads.

Missing from the Applicant’s case was any indication of investment in players for a team in order to bring them up to a standard to play in higher league football and to meet their ongoing wage costs. So the “prospect of bringing top level non-league football to Guildford” does not just depend upon the decision of an Inspector - as stated in the Surrey Advertiser (26 May). In fact it depends upon:
- whether any local team wants to and can afford to play in Mr. Harper’s proposed Stadium
- whether anyone can raise the millions required to build such a stadium
- whether anyone will put in the money to fund a team of the appropriate skill.
So it’s all up in the air. In the view of “Stop the Stadium” this is not a visionary proposal, as stated by Mr. Harper’s barrister, it is a delusion which is against the interests of residents across the borough. Also Guildford in not the largest town without a league football team as the Applicant frequently states. None of the towns listed below* have such teams and all are larger than Guildford Borough with its 130,000 population:

Dudley - population 310,000
Salford - population 216,000
Warrington - population 191,000
Basingstoke - population 152,000

What is clear is that the site is unsuitable for a stadium in addition to and in competition with the Spectrum. The local football team has a ground to play on already at Spectrum and the degree of local support for the application is low. The land which is Council owned is not for sale. The land is already well used to the benefit of all residents for traveling circuses and fairgrounds and provides temporary, but essential, overspill parking for Guilfest, Spectrum events and the Country Show, and residents enjoy the open aspect it brings to the whole of Stoke Park.

What is also clear is that the financial costs to Guildford tax payers in mounting a defence against this appeal are increasing. In addition, the emotional stress Guilford residents are enduring because of the uncertainty as to their future quality of life continues to mount and all because a private company wants to further its business interests. Surely this has to stop? It is time to declare that Stoke Park and other precious urban green open spaces in Guildford will be preserved for ever.

Graham Hibbert & Dylan White

Notes to Editor:
* Information taken from “The National Obsession” written by John Motson OBE published 2004

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