New Threat to Coate

CLUB EYES COATE AS STADIUM SITE

By Andy Tate - Evening Advertiser 24th July 2004

Swindon Town would consider building its new stadium at Coate.

Fresh after Swindon Council stamped on the club's dream for a sports complex at Shaw Forest, club director Bob Holt said nowhere was off limits.

And the picturesque Coate area of south Swindon will be one of the sites up for discussion.

"We will look at everything and anything" said Mr Holt.

"If anyone has got any suggestions they should submit them to us and we will investigate every proposal thoroughly.

"If we can come up with a big enough plot and the owner is up for it we would be over the moon" he said.

St Modwen, the developer working with Town to build a new stadium, says it is open-minded about its location.

Senior development surveyor Rupert Joseland said: "we need to do some more work before we know whether we can find an alternative, but will consider all sites"

On Thursday night, councillors of all parties united to vote through a motion supporting Shaw Community Forest - thereby ending any hope the club had of building a sporting village on the land.

After losing the battle over Shaw Forest, Town bosses would be brave to push for a new stadium at Coate as plans to build a university campus there have already sparked a campaign of opposition by environmentalists.

The developers who have options to build on the land - Redrow and Persimmon - have offered to give the University of Bath 150 acres for free in the hope of winning planning permission for houses and offices alongside it.

Before the proposals can be sealed and signed they require the thumbs up from a planning inspector, who is due to open a public inquiry in November.

If the developers were to offer the land to the cash-strapped football club instead, a stadium at Coate could become a serious proposition.

Redrow and Persimmon were unavailable for comment.

But environmentalists expressed horror at he possibility of a football stadium near Coate Water, which if a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Jean Saunders, of the Save Coate campaign, said "The impact of a stadium on the landscape and nature reserve would be enormous.

It would be just as bad as a university campus.

"It's the open countryside feel of the place that is particularly precious, so any type of development that blots the landscape will obviously be opposed by ordinary people, and from an environmental perspective totally unacceptable."