Regular visitors to this site will recall the announcements posted on 23rd May, 1st August and 10th December of 2012. (To refresh your memory on these related articles, please enter Xcel in the search facility above; and/or the LOSRA Newsletters Menu for the Autumn 2012 edition).
As was suspected, Elmbridge Council is now progressing plans for the proposed Sports Stadium complex on Green Belt at Waterside Drive by submitting a development proposal for the football and athletics clubs' current site at Stompond Lane in Walton.
Last year, and to allay the strong suspicions of residents, Elmbridge officers and councillors repeatedly assured us that the two sites were completely unconnected (in other words, the development of one (Xcel) was not contingent upon the sale and development of the other (Stompond Lane). This year, however, they have admitted that the two are indeed connected and, amazingly, deny that they ever claimed there was no connection between existing sports ground and the development of a £6m sports hub adjacent to Xcel.
The land at Waterside Drive is in the greenbelt. The proposal is for an athletics track, a grandstand, the main football pitch and three practice pitches which will stretch from the Xcel building along behind the Weir Pub. The view from the historic conservation area in Sunbury will be ruined by the very visible 28 floodlights,18 metres high, on top of the bund.
The two football clubs currently playing at Stomponds Lane have absolutely no desire to move to this out-of-town location and will be expected to play their matches every Saturday and Wednesday. The floodlit practice pitches will be in use most days and the noise, amplified by the water of the Thames, will be constant.
Elmbridge Council will be proceeding with similar haste to last year, stating that they expect to finalise plans for the Waterside Drive sports hub by March 2013. That seems absolutely astonishing given that the land is contaminated, and the Outline Planning Application required a number of reports to ascertain whether it could be excavated and built on safely, particularly when it is so close to the river Thames. Residents in Sunbury were not properly consulted last year when the Outline Planning application was 'pushed through' and there is now a much wider alliance of opposition.
The first meeting will be at Full Council at 7.45 on Wednesday 27th February at the Civic Centre in Esher. LOSRA members are urged to attend and, if reluctant to drive themselves, there will be a coach leaving the Weir Pub at 6.45, stopping at Stompond Lane at 7.00pm before continuing to the Civic Centre.
Please try to come along.
