Bryan Huxford Statement

By: Bryan Huxford
Date: 09/11/2000

I must start by thanking the people of the North East Lincolnshire for their overwhelming support in the opinion survey and their subsequent support following the Council's devastating decision on 13th July.

The purpose of this article is to bring everyone up to date with the stadium situation, and the crucial decision that the Council will soon be making. After turning down the stadium scheme on 13th July, the Council recognised that the Club had no alternative but to relocate and commissioned charted surveyors Gerald Eve to carry out an independent survey to find a suitable site. The survey concluded that the Great Coates site was the only feasible one for the new stadium scheme. As Grimsby Town fans will probably be aware, part of that site has been affected by the recent expansion of the Norvartis Health and Safety Consultation Zone. Revised proposals have therefore been submitted that keep the whole scheme outside the Zone. Nothing about the new stadium itself has changed : it has simply been a question of moving the enabling part of the development to a different part of the site and adding more landscaping. This has, in fact improved the scheme, because it screens the retail part of the development from Great Coates. All the controls and benefits offered in out earlier proposals still apply. Great Coates will still be a Controlled Parking Zone on matchdays; football traffic will still be kept out of Great Coates; the 30 acres of land between the development and Great Coates will still be open green public amenity space; the training pitches on the stadium site will be available for community use - and so on. In the next few weeks, the Council will be making a momentous decision on the Clubs future. We believe that the work undertaken since 13th July confirms that the Great Coates site must be supported - not simply because it is the only new stadium site but because it is also (as the independent survey confirms) the only one that meets all the Government's planning requirements for a development of this kind. Let us hope that, this time, the Councillors make a decision that is in accordance with the wishes of the over-whelming majority of the people who elected them. Bryan Huxford, Vice Chairman, GTFC

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