New Stadium: Official Statement

By: GTFC
Date: 20/10/2005

GRIMSBY Town Football Club are about to submit a planning application for its new stadium at Great Coates. Town chairman John Fenty and his fellow directors are about to push the project forward again with North East Lincolnshire Council.

If the Mariners are given the go-ahead, it is hoped that the new Conoco Stadium with an initial 12,000 capacity would be ready for the 2008/09 season.

The site, at the A180 Great Coates interchange, could later be boosted to the 21,000-seater ground with training pitches, an academy, and other facilities to support the club on a daily basis. The club's 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 to the official website, the chairman said: "We have been approached by the Burford Group, a well established developer with a strong track record in retail warehouse development.

"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."

And Mr Fenty would like to assure the residents of Great Coates and the wider area of Grimsby's Willows and Wybers Wood estates that there would be a robust set of safeguards.

He 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."

Russell Slade talked to the Grimsby Telegraph about the news saying;

"It is just fantastic for the club. From the playing point of view, all being well, we will have a stadium that will be impressive, and it will help attract players to the area because of the facilities and what we have to offer. "I have seen the blueprint and I think it is superb and ideally located just off the A180. It is so accessible and a lot of thought seems to have gone into it."

"There is a real feelgood factor around the town and the players, the fans and I all feel that we can do something this season.

" "On the back of the announcement about the new stadium it is all really positive for us all. It shows the club is going in the right direction."

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