New Stadium Update
(Latest updates at top)
UPDATE Mon 28th Oct’24 – Brakes Chairman urges supporters to fill out the consultation survey by this Thursday and lobby their councillors
With the district council’s consultation closing this Thursday and a major funding decision due on 4th December, Brakes supporters are urged to complete the online survey and lobby their local councillors. The club makes a good case for its benefit to the wider community, but points out how it is hampered by its current out-of-town location, whereas a new community stadium nearer town could enhance its prospects and benefit the district.
UPDATE Fri 11th Oct’24 – Council opens Myton Path and Fusiliers Way Public Consultation
From www.warwickdc.gov.uk/news/article/1236/myton_path_and_fusiliers_way_public_consultation
Local residents are being invited to give their views on plans to create a new traffic free link between the Myton Road in Warwick and Fusiliers Way as part of an ambitious scheme.
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The proposals and opportunities for the Fusiliers Way area include:
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– Community Stadium that would serve as the new home ground of Leamington Football Club
Also reported in Warwickshire World:
Views sought on plans for new stadium, athletics track, shared pathway and businesses in Leamington and Warwick:
Two consultations have been launched by Warwick District Council.The first is about plans to create a traffic free link between Myton Road in Warwick and Fusiliers Way – known as Myton Path.
The second is looking for views on a range of projects as part of a scheme to develop community facilities within the Fusiliers Way area.
Residents can also see the Myton Path and Fusiliers Way plans and give their feedback at: www.warwickdc.gov.uk/fusiliersway
UPDATE Thurs 4th Sep’24 – Council decision postponed to December.
In the latest Warwick District Forward Plan, published last week, the Key Decision to ‘To seek approval to progress the project to construct a Community Stadium on land next to Fusiliers Way’ is postponed until 4th December 2024. The reason given is ‘Seeking further clarification on implications of report’.
UPDATE Thurs 8th Aug’24 – Councillor promises “really close look at costs” and may be pushed back to the meeting on October 17.
From Warwickshire World 7th Aug’24:
Warwick District Council: Councillor promises “really close look” at Leamington stadium costs
The councillor in charge of Warwick District Council’s finances has vowed to keep a close eye on the numbers around a proposed new stadium for Leamington Football Club.
Councillor Jonathan Chilvers (Green, Leamington Brunswick), the district’s portfolio holder for resources, made the commitment having faced questions from Councillor Judy Falp (Whitnash Residents’, Whitnash) over the potential financial implications.It was revealed in April that a new 4,000 capacity ground for the Brakes, including an artificial pitch and community uses around fitness, parent and toddler, community education and community health provision, was on the table as part of the wider development at Fusilier’s Way, Myton Green.
The wider plans feature housing, education provision to help cater for nearby housing developments, a new athletics track and offices as well as the new Myton Path – a path and cycleway connecting Myton Road and Fusilier’s Way – plus wider connectivity with Warwick Technology Park.
A masterplan and stage one – Myton Path and the new athletics facility has already been approved with a neighbourhood centre and the repurposing of a listed farmhouse next on the agenda.
The football stadium and its enabling development is part of the third phase due to be considered by cabinet on September 4 once more detail has come together, although while responding to the question, Cllr Chilvers suggested it may be pushed back to the following meeting on October 17.
Cllr Falp queried the costs of the project, including those associated with plans to locate a travellers’ site on the current ground.
She also asked whether the club would receive any council funding, what length of lease would be offered and on what terms, whether the council would receive any income from the site and what the value of the land is at the new stadium’s potential location.
“It could be housing land as we were informed that if the stadium was not built, the land would be used for housing, so I want the price (the council would receive) on housing rather than anything else,” she said.
Cllr Chilvers replied: “The last time cost estimates on the community stadium and associated works were done was about a year ago and we are about to go into the next phase of looking at what they are.
“It tends to get more detailed each time they are looked at so I think the questions you have raised will get covered in that period and in the run up to decisions we will be briefing all councillors.
“The community stadium is a very substantial project, we are talking really big stuff, so we will be taking a really close look at the whole project because we have to make sure we have the money to be able to deliver it.
“We have to go in with our eyes open.”
There are various planning stages to go through for the stadium proposals before a tentative target date of starting building work in early 2027 in order to open the stadium in July 2028..
It would be a particularly big step forward for the football club which was a major player at the sharp end of the non-league game until the 1980s.
UPDATE Mon 1st July:
Brakes Trust member John Glendinning has dug out a bit more information:
Upcoming WDC cabinet meeting papers have some interesting teasers on where the Community Stadium project is going. Still in updated master plan but lower priority than other projects. Looks like September for key decisions on funding and scope…
The ‘wider connections’ plan seems to hint at arrangement with the Co-op for matchday parking, which seems sensible from a land use perspective rather than surrounding the stadium with parking that only fills for a couple of hours a week…
Papers can be accessed here: estates8.warwickdc.gov.uk/cmis/MeetingDates/tabid/149/ctl/ViewMeetingPublic/mid/637/Meeting/4875/Committee/29/SelectedTab/Documents
24th June’24:
The “Warwick District Council Forward Plan July 2024” published today [24th June’24] has a key decision about the new stadium to be considered in private by the WDC cabinet on 4th Sep’24:
Community Stadium at Fusiliers Way (1,470)
To seek approval to progress the project to construct a Community Stadium on land next to Fusiliers Way.
It is anticipated that part or all of this item will be considered in private by virtue of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, following the Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006 because it will contain information relating to the financial or business affairs of the Council.