Further to earlier reports on this site (23/5/12, 10/7/12, 1/8/12, & 20/2/13), LOSRA was dismayed last week to learn that Elmbridge Borough Council intend to proceed with plans for a Sports Stadium Complex at Waterside Drive next to the Xcel Leisure Centre on the bank of the river near the weir. Elmbridge Borough Council has been consulting their residents about plans to develop the current playing fields on Stompond Lane, further into the borough, where Walton Athletics Club and Walton & Hersham Football Club are currently based. This development of the Stompond Lane ground, filling it with houses, will be used as a means of funding the stadium at Waterside Drive.
Consultation responses from Walton & Hersham Football Club made it clear that they would prefer to stay at Stompond Lane - even in older, less well-maintained facilities - rather than move to Waterside Drive. Comments were also invited from local residents, and this showed that a vast majority – 88 per cent - of consultation responses objected outright to the Stompond Lane development, with only 12 per cent favouring the concentration of sports facilities at Waterside Drive.
Despite what might appear to be a clear mandate not to develop Stompond Lane, the Elmbridge Council Cabinet approved the appointment of Willmot Dixon to investigate the contaminated land at Waterside Drive. So it’s little surprise that Sunbury residents didn’t get a consultation, when Elmbridge has so little regard for what their own voters think.
Elmbridge has also brushed aside various covenants on the Stompond Lane ground, including one stipulating that it should only be used for sports and recreation. LOSRA Committee members observed that Elmbridge would have to disclose these covenants when they offer the land for sale which would deter developers and devalue the land.
(Photo illustrates potential light pollution affecting Thames stretch of Lower Sunbury)
