Thetownend.com

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/swindonnewsheadlines/display.var.714218.0.blow_to_towns_stadium_hope.php

What a shocking, unexpected suprise. Ahem.

There is something very fishy going on here.

Who if anyone is nactually advising the board, you would expect them to have employed some professionals to get the planning permissions they need, people who would have known from day 1 that the fact that you are upseting other sports ain't going to work.

Even if the board in their wisdom are not taking advice, how much are Mowlems involved, as they dont make the money they make without employing the best!

Equally the staff at the council would have advised them of this at an early stage, its not exactly rocket science!

Nice picture though.

They do have consultants onboard and I think they have been aware for a while now that the proposals as submitted were not going to get the nod.

They did get some advice from the Council before making the proposals as well, but I can only guess that something got lost in translation for them to have come out with what they did.

They have stated that they are willing to work on revised proposals though, os if they mean it, we should still be able to produce something.  Caborn's reply does suggest a development is possible on site.

Couldn't we just build the houses elsewhere to fund the stadium?

Tbh, this is a bit of something and nothing. If you want to take the negative view, then it's another nail in the coffin of the housing-based proposals the club submitted in the autumn. But they've been dead in the water for a good while. If you want to take the positive view, this puts government weight behind the idea of a redevelopment of the County Ground, at the County Ground, further adding to the pressure on the council, and which could be very important later down the track (e.g. if plans look like getting called in). Or you could see it as "local MP pokes oar in to prove she's got clout with ministers". Either way, it's not really anything that new, irrespective of hype from the Adver!

Or local MP taking a pro active approach to an important issue for us all.

Fair play to her I say, she's helped raise the profile of the stadium re-development proposals.

Exactly right Paul. Seems like the adver sensationalising something that most people have known for a while - redevelopment of the cricket and athletics sites isnt going to happen.

Sorry Cookie,yes, didn't mean my comment to come across so negative. One thing this does do is push the process on, and as I did say Anne Snelgrove's intervention at govt level may be crucial later on in the process. Sorry if what I posted didn't convey that.

I'd say that sounds spot on PD.

The below seems like a bit of a walk down the Garden path and I'm of the thought just what the hell is Mrs Snelgrove doing taking proposals between the council and club to the Sports Council for an opinion, which she has made public?

It's all very third hand and unofficial sounding.  The Minister said this, the Minister said that the Adver should have really followed the piece through and got some direct quotes from Richard Carbon.

It sounds very much like the result of the cross party meeting last week in an attempt to try and generate some sort of movement again between the club and council.  It's just a shame that it's been carried out and then presented in such a poor way.

plans should have been right from the start,wasn't planned properly from the outset.
what a joke

Theres a bit of wasteland by Zurich you could build flats on if that would help :-))(

There are loads of places where you can build houses, the council just have to be stupid and suggest putting them where a stadium is.

The council didn't, the club did. Which is the problem with the current proposals. But a stadium redvelopment needn't be funded solely by selling land for housing - other clubs have come up with more imaginative ways and it can be done here.

hopefully one day the club will come up with something that may have a chance of happening,or forget the whole sorry saga, i think we should make do with what we have and manage the club properly,which is the reason the club is in the state its in.bad decsions over the years have cost the club dearly.

But to undo those bad decisions you have to find ways to make money.

yes, but i dont trust the board to do so.

OK, but irrespective of that, the simple fact is that the model of "Let's try and make money on gate receipts alone" just doesn't work at this level - you're trying to fund a business with a turnover of several million (a large portion of which goes on wages) on only being open 25-30 days a year. Just doesn't work. The point of the ground redevelopment is to get the stuff like conferencing/hotel facilities etc so that the club can have a stable non-football dependent revenue stream which at least gives it a chance of being financially stable, without being solely dependent on the efforts of 16 middling players every fortnight or so. That need for stablility and hence need for non-football revenue and hence the need for  ground redevelopment will remain the case irrespective of which board is in charge. You might not trust the current board to spend the proceeds wisely, but don't scupper the chances of this or any future board being able to actually offer the club a stable secure future by abandoning the CG redevelopment all together. Football has moved into a new era - the days of surviving on 30-odd home games a year and a medium-weight sugar daddy are gone. As is any club that continues to depend on that model. (Hint: out of 92 league clubs, there's about 8 that haven't redeveloped/moved recently or are trying to)

how is saying i dont trust the board going to scupper any future development? i have seen little evidence that they are doing a good job in planning a new stadium and all that go's with it.
i know the club want to generate money by using the redeveloped stadium for other events but,all plans so far for redevlopment have been poorly thought out.
i hope to be pleasantly surprised in the future.
i agree that football is changing but,other clubs smaller than us are ok so why cant we be?

Its been obvious for a long time that this latest proposal is anon starter...so this just officially puts it to bed.

  Don't think the development in the footprint is a starter either....the club could have done it already but have no money.

 Which leaves us with the mythical plan B....its going to be interesting to see if the Board will put this into play now or I believe more likely cut and run.

Reg, indications are that locals and councillors would allow development around the ground, just not a housing estate on the green space.  There is still 7.5 acres to play with and other examples have shown up to £16m at least could be raised by developing bricks and mortar only 10 metres or so back around the ground (appartments, hotels, conferencing etc will still have sufficient sq footage on a 4-5 floor development).

Bristol Rovers have submitted plans for the Memorial Ground, which has a much smaller plot than we'd still have available, which could be expanded at the CG.

 If, the club had some money then they could probably get something past SBC...as ever though...it relies on SBC to show some initiative...so it wont happen.

 In my view its that simple...if the Plan B is viable then the the Board are duty bound to pursue it....as things are currently panning out we'll be in a battle for L2 status this time next season....with no prospect of an improvement in fortunes.

Thats nothing we didnt know months ago.....

Left to their own devices I agree.  However, if they are given a bit of guidance and persuasion based on benefits to the Council I think something can be done - and I don't mean leaving it just to the club and Council to sort that out.

Good luck with it Rob......

I agree. You're going to need it.

The council seem to have done little to make life easy for the club and if the two could just work together maybe we would get somewhere. At the moment that just isn't the case and we can only hope that a good idea will come along from SOMEWHERE!