New stadium: all will be revealed

The site for the proposed new Latics stadium at Lancaster Sports Club

OLDHAM Athletic’s owners have promised full consultation on plans for a new stadium in Failsworth — four months after the scheme came to light.

Co-owner and managing director Simon Corney plans a series of meetings before a public exhibition in the New Year.

The club has taken on professional advisers to help it, and Mr Corney added: “We fully appreciate and understand local residents’ disappointments and concerns in not having been directly consulted at this stage.

“However there is a significant amount of work to do before we will be in a position to submit a planning application and we want to reassure people that they will be involved in this important process.”

In August, the club was criticised for charging the public to attend an open forum about the club’s plan to move to Failsworth at The Radclyffe School, Hunt Lane, Chadderton.

It also clashed with a Failsworth Partners and Communities Together meeting, which all six Failsworth councillors attended.

Alan Shaw, chairman of the Failsworth Residents’ Action Group which is raising a 10,000 name petition against the stadium plans, said: “At last they have started to listen to us.

“All this could have been done ages ago because they still haven’t got plans. Is the meeting going to be this year, next year and at a venue of our choice?

“We don’t want fans there, just the residents of Failsworth.

“A stadium possibly could bring benefits, but where are they going to put parking? Broadway is going to be a death trap in the rush hour. Will there be special buses? These are only some of our concerns.”

It was July when the Chronicle printed the bombshell news that the Lancaster Club, land at Failsworth Lower Memorial Park and near-by allotments were earmarked for the development, revealed in an agenda item on the council’s website.

Six days later, on the day the item was debated by councillors, Latics confirmed it hoped to develop a 12,000 seater stadium on the 30 acre site.

The £20 million scheme was vital to the club’s survival, the club said, paid for by developing houses on its Boundary Park ground.

Today Mr Corney said: “We now feel we are in a position to present our initial thoughts and seek views and input from the community.

“This development has the potential to provide many new employment opportunities and to have a very positive impact on the community in terms of a range of new sports and recreation facilities for the people who live and work in the area.”

Last week Labour councillors met Mr Corney and Latics chief executive Alan Hardy, and told them there should be less secrecy over the stadium plans.

And the Tory group leader, Councillor Jack Hulme, and colleagues also met Latics directors last week. Councillor Hulme said: “We told them they hadn’t handled it well and they assured us there would be more public consultation.

“I was reassured that the size of the stadium would be one story and would not be overpowering everything on the front of the road.

“I am cautious because I want to see if they can deliver, and in budget, but I think it offers something positive for that part of the borough.

“There are a lot of ifs, but there is vision there.”