Council leader reveals potential stadium site

12:09pm Saturday 14th June 2008

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FORMER City of York Council leader Steve Galloway has revealed that land behind York Racecourse is being considered as a site for a new community sports stadium.

In a Liberal Democrat survey form, aimed at canvassing residents on their opinion about the possibility of selling Huntington Stadium to help fund a new sports venue, Coun Galloway cites land between the former Terry's factory and the College of Law as a potential place to relocate York City and York City Knights.

Coun Galloway, who is now city strategy executive member at Guildhall, has also told The Press that the land, known as Bustardthorpe and accessed from Bishopthorpe Road, is now a frontrunner, along with the previously-publicised site at Nestlé, as the most likely new home for the city's football and rugby league clubs.

He said: "There is the area of land near Nestlé and land close to the racecourse known as Bustardthorpe and, at the moment, they seem to be the most likely locations for a community stadium although other sites have not been discounted. The area to the rear of the racecourse has been raised as a possibility during informal council discussions but no more than that.

"Our reason for mentioning the two sites in the survey distributed to residents in Huntington and the Westfield Ward, was to get across to people that the options will not necessarily be close to Huntington Stadium. I've no strong feelings either way as to where a new community stadium should be but, if you exclude Huntington Stadium, the two areas mentioned are big enough, although the area next to Nestlé is bigger and would offer more opportunities."

As previously reported in The Press, a separate planning issue has brought stadium negotiations with Nestlé to a standstill, meaning Bustardthorpe is now likely to present the football club's preferred home for a new stadium.

York City FC communications and community director Sophie McGill was reluctant to comment on the suitability of the site with auditors having just conducted a report on the club's accounts to be presented to council committee members before the end of the month.

A final decision will then be made on whether the council will takeover the club's annual £138,000 Football Foundation loan repayments and ease the financial burden on the Minstermen until relocation from Bootham Crescent is secured.

McGill said: "A decision has not yet been made regarding the location of the site for the new stadium. We have just completed the forensic accounting procedure with Deloitte and the results of this will soon be submitted to the City of York Council."

Added McGill: "When the Deloitte report has been considered, we very much hope all political parties will vote in favour of proceeding with the community stadium for the city of York.

"We believe a city the size and stature of York deserves a state of the art stadium for professional sport and a facility the community can be proud of."

Outgoing council deputy chief executive Simon Wiles added that talk of potential sites should be regarded as premature and conjecture at this point.

He said: "We're not really concentrating on the site at the moment, we are concentrating on providing support for the football and rugby league clubs.

"We have identified seven sites and there are two that have the best potential but we will concentrate on the sites when we are in a position to provide project management and there will then be ownership, traffic and other issues.

"The auditors' report has been completed and I've produced a summary which will be presented to the council's committee members."

Encouragingly, for City fans, Coun Wiles added: "I haven't identified anything to worry about as yet."