ARTICLE REPRODUCED COURTESY OF THE

 GRIMSBY EVENING TELEGRAPH AND 

GRIMSBY TOWN FOOTBALL CLUB

Grimsby Town could be playing in a new 12,000 
seater stadium within three years. The club is 
about to submit a planning application for its new
 stadium at Great Coates, 11 years after a move from Blundell
 Park was first mooted. Now chairman John Fenty is about to 
push the project forward again with North East Lincolnshire 
Council, as he and his fellow directors look to take the club
 from the 19th to the 21st century. 

If given the go-ahead the club's dream is to be in the new Conoco Stadium with an initial 12,000 capacity, ready for the 2008/09 season, creating a new gateway to Grimsby at the A180 Great Coates interchange site. It could then be boosted to a 21,000-seater stage with training pitches, an academy, and other facilities to support the club on a daily basis. And the recent success on the pitch in both league and cup, has demonstrated the need to move, with fans missing out on the big matches.

Speaking exclusively to the Grimsby Evening Telegraph, Mr Fenty said:

"We are really excited that we are now able to re-launch the stadium scheme. We have been approached by the Burford Group, a well established developer with a strong track record in retail warehouse development, and have been working with them to progress the project.

They have carried out initial feasibility studies, taken soundings from retailers and are keen to take forward the development as soon as the club has secured council support for the scheme. It is important that we have the earliest possible approval from the planning committee. Only then will others take this project seriously and work with us to deliver the scheme. It is therefore vital that both we and the council act quickly to seize a development opportunity that is in the best interests not simply of the football club, but of the town as a whole. The new stadium would make a massive contribution to the socio-economic well-being of Grimsby, guarantee the future of Grimsby Town Football Club and add immeasurably to the prestige of the town."

A NEW stadium is already part of North East Lincolnshire's Local Plan, adopted in November 2003. Policy LTC6 provides for the new stadium, 1,300 parking spaces, a 700-space park and ride facility for the authority, new training pitches for both GTFC and community use and a commercial enabling development, including 150,000 square feet of retail floorspace. This was all previously approved by NELC following a positive recommendation from the Local Plan Inspector and a decision by the Government to allow the proposal to be decided by the council. 

GTFC has taken legal advice which indicates that the council is obliged to have regard to the Local Plan allocation which will be the key consideration in determining the application, when it goes before officers and crucially, members. Mr Fenty said:

"There is strong local support for the new stadium proposal. The club carried out a town-wide survey in June 2000 which showed that 84 per cent of the households in all the wards of the North East Lincolnshire area supported the stadium relocation scheme. Almost 14,000 people returned the questionnaires - easily the biggest ever single issue poll carried out in the area."

The club has outlined a series of key benefits of the project going forward. These are:

• A minimum £30 million investment in Grimsby
• Help to regenerate the local economy
• A total of £10-million of sub-contract work for local companies during construction
• More than 350 new jobs for local people, and additional jobs during construction
• Attracting major new investors to the town
• Greatly enhance the attraction of Grimsby as a place to live, work and do business.
• The provision of much-needed new high-quality conference, banqueting and hotel facilities
• Enhance the attraction of Europarc and encourage major businesses to locate there.
• Providing a landmark building at the main gateway entrance to Grimsby.
• Secure the financial stability and future survival of the district's premier football club.
• Enhance the prestige and profile of Grimsby, to the economic benefit of the whole town
• Bring in new retail, enabling development to add to the quality of the retail offered in the Grimsby area and retain retail spend within the Grimsby area.

The move may surprise many considering how the club appeared to be on the brink of administration back in January when the £720,000 tax debt, a direct result of the collapse of ITV Digital, was announced. But, Mr Fenty added:

"The club can afford to embark on the new stadium project while the tax debt is still outstanding.The initiatives of the Keep the Mariners Afloat campaign are on target to discharge the debt and separate funding is being put in place to make the new stadium affordable."

CONCERNS of those living in Great Coates and the wider area of Grimsby's Willows and Wybers Wood estates are to be met with a robust set of safeguards. Many of the proposals put in place were established through conversations and meetings between the original developers and the community when the location was first found to be the best available. Mr Fenty said:

"I want to assure the residents of Great Coates that all the

amenity-protecting measures that were incorporated in the original scheme will also be included in this new application.

Both the Local Plan Inspector and the council were satisfied that the

safeguards secured by the Section 106 Legal Agreement were a sufficient and appropriate response to local concerns."

The safeguards, many of which are being budgeted for as projections are made, include:

• A total ban on car parking in Great Coates and the Willows, other than for residents on match days
• The provision of a fleet of shuttle buses on match days to reduce the use of the private car park
• A pedestrian and cycle link from the northern end of Woad Lane to the stadium
• Off site stewarding and policing on match days
• CCTV at certain locations in Great Coates provided at the request of local residents
• Litter clearance after matches on main pedestrian routes
• Traffic, parking and public transport monitoring to ensure that it is working effectively
• A contribution of £50,000 for a car park for St Nicolas Church
• A 2.5 acre nature study area/copse in the south east corner of the site next to Great Coates
• A new bus service via Europarc
• A learning centre for local schoolchildren
• A liaison group to ensure that the arrangements work effectively on match days.

 STAGES of the stadium - the story so far.

• 1994 - Grimsby Borough Council commissioned a report to identify the best site for potential relocation of GTFC.
• November 1999 - Planning application submitted along with supporting information including an up to date study of appropriate sites which concluded that the Great Coates A180 Interchange site was the only suitable one.
• January 2000 - Submission made by GTFC suggesting allocation of the Great Coates Interchange site in the Local Plan.
• July 2000 - NELC commissioned Gerald Eve, a planning inspector, to carry out a new study of possible sites which concluded that the Great Coates Interchange site was the most suitable.
• December 2000 - NELC resolved to allocate the Great Coates Interchange site in the Local Plan.
• January 2001 - NELC resolved to approve planning application.
• December 2001 - Government Office for Yorkshire and the Humber decided not to intervene and to leave decision on application with the Local Authority.
• April 2002 - Local Plan Inquiry held, including examination of Great Coates Interchange site and objections of local residents.
• November 2002 - Inspector's report published recommending the retention of Policy LTC6 (football stadium relocation) in the Local Plan.
• April 2003 - NELC refuse planning application because Section 106 was not able to be signed.
• November 2003 - NELC's Local Plan is adopted including the policy to relocate the football stadium to the Great Coates Interchange site.

Article written by David Laister of the Grimsby Evening Telegraph