Grounds for Hope?

By: Chris Parrott et al
Date: 25/10/2001

A LOT of support has been shown recently for the new stadium plans (e.g. the petition on this site). A handful of exiles have been digging around to see what fans can practically do within the context of the impending Inquiry to show their support for the stadium proposal.

In good mini-series fashion, we start with a recap.

Current Position

NELC approved a change to the local development plan to accommodate the new stadium proposals. Some Great Coates residents continue to object despite modifications to address some of their (understandable) concerns. Due to the on-going objections and apparent breach of government policy on out-of-town developments, the changes to the local development plan will be subject to an Inquiry led by an independent Inspector.

The Inquiry (boring but important)

The Inquiry itself starts in February 2002 with a pre-inquiry hearing on 6 November (at Cleethorpes Town Hall). The pre-inquiry meeting deals with administrative issues and will outline the procedure and timetable for the Inquiry. The new stadium is only one of a number of issues that the Inquiry will consider. The Inquiry itself will consider the objections submitted to the Council earlier this year, the Council’s response to those objections and current government policy on issues such as retail developments and greenfield sites. The possible outcomes could be: acceptance of the NELC policy for the stadium; complete rejection of the policy; or an amended policy to attempt to address some of the objector’s concerns including those raised by the DTLR.

The Inquiry process permits other interested parties to submit "supporting representations". Unfortunately we have missed the deadline for making supporting representations as fans in our own right (who knew about it?). On the basis that it does not feel our input would add anything to their evidence, and because of precedents, the Council has chosen not to place any supporting representations made at this late stage before the Inspector. But, the Planning Office has said that it will put on file any letters we do write and make the Inspector aware of them. It would then be at the Inspector’s discretion whether to take them into account and what weight to attach to them.

Is it hopeless? Not entirely

We believe if enough people submit well-reasoned letters and statements that address the issues that the Inspector will consider, supporters’ views will be harder to ignore.

The key issues and the points we should be making are:

1.0 Local objections about the "loss of amenity" to Great Coates residents (i.e. the loss of peace & quiet etc.) are understandable but possibly misplaced. It might be argued that the visual outlook could be improved through landscaping.

2.0 Government Policy

2.1 Out-of-town retail development taking away business from (and the possible closure of) town centre shops together with its encouragement for more car journeys. Difficult to argue against unless it can be shown that the new facilities are not currently available and will complement rather than compete with town centre shops.

2.2 Transport - i.e. extra car journeys to the new site. Against this we could point out that: