Kicked into touch...

BEYOND the Boundary... Clayton Playing Fields, the site for the ill-fated SportsPark 2000

LATICS STADIUM FALLOUT
The ill-fated Sports Park 2000 scheme would have been the ideal plan for the future of Oldham Athletic, according to Councillor John Battye.

The former council leader was at the helm of the authority when the proposals for the new joint rugby and football stadium were given planning permission in 1999.

They proposed relocating the football stadium onto Clayton Playing Fields, also a charitable trust; building conference, banqueting and motel facilities, and moving the public fields onto Boundary Park; building a new B&Q store on the Westwood athletics site and moving the track to The Radclyffe School.

It would have been financed from land sales, grants, commercial sponsorship, and council tax payers were promised it would not cost them a penny.

But plans ground to a halt in 2000 when Liberal Democrats took over the council amid claims that costs has soared from £17million to almost £28million, with an £18million funding gap. Only B&Q and the new track materialised.

But Councillor Battye said the plans had already had Charity Commission approval, and added: “We were 12 months away from building it. It would have been modelled on, but smaller than, the stadium in Huddersfield, and right by a motorway junction. It was a huge disappointment at the time.

“After the Sixth Form College and the building of Spindles it would have been our number three achievement.”

Clayton Playing Fields have since been granted Town Green status, making development almost impossible.

Councillor Battye, a Latics supporter who was at Tuesday’s 4-0 victory over Hartlepool, added: “There were 3,056 people there — people need to get behind the team.

“I think the charity commission decision has set the plans back 18 month to two years.

“Certainly listening to Jim McMahon (the new Labour council leader) on Wednesday at the council meeting, the Charity Commission’s report shows the process did not follow correct procedures.

“But people are prepared to do everything in their power to get a stadium for Oldham.”

‘Concerns pushed aside’
Warnings about the way the Failsworth land exchange was being handled began in 2009, according to Councillor Jim McMahon, the Labour group leader.

The ward councillor and Failsworth resident helped search archives to produce the evidence that the land was bought by the War Memorial Committee. And Labour raised the conflicts of interest when the Failsworth Trust Committee was set up last year.

He said: “Genuine concerns were pushed aside and we were ignored or ridiculed and dismissed. We were laughed at across the council chamber. It was arrogance when legitimate concerns were raised, and I lay the blame firmly at the council’s door.

“The land was funded by people who wanted to donate money and deserved adequate compensation. The memorial was set up for the benefits of Failsworth and it is in the public interest for Oldham to have a stadium, because if we don’t it will set us back.

“We recognise the importance of a football club to the town’s self-confidence.”