Kevin Routledge, Leicester City Riders, will give an update on the Community Sports Arena Project. This is a joint project between the Leicester Riders, Leicestershire County Cricket Club and Leicester College. An outline of the project was reported at the last meeting and an open day was held at the County Cricket Ground on 23 February to see the full extent of the project.
Minutes:
Kevin Routledge, Leicester City Riders, gave an update on the Community Sports Arena Project. This was a joint project between the Leicester Riders, Leicestershire County Cricket Club and Leicester College. An outline of the project was reported at the last meeting and an open day was held at the County Cricket Ground on 23 February to see the full extent of the project.
Kevin explained that the open day went well and approximately 600 attended. Leaflets were distributed to 10,000 surrounding properties, (although some residents in Hawksby Road indicated that they had not received one). Anyone who missed it could get a copy of the presentation by contacting him. The project was valued at £3.3m and £2.4 m had been raised to date. A bid had been submitted to Sport England and the outcome of this should be known the following week. There were now two projects one for the Arena (the size of approximately 12 badminton courts), which would be owned by a non-profit making company, and one for a development of 14 flats which would be owed by the Cricket Club, and income from the rents would be used to support the club’s finances.
A joint planning application was being made for both projects. The external design of the Arena had been completed and ECB approval was being sought. Local residents had been invited to a meeting to discuss their concerns expressed over parking and access and egress arrangements. Representatives of the Cricket Club had been present and had taken these concerns away and would be reporting back to a further meeting in two weeks to address the issues.
The next meeting would be held on 27 March 2013 a 7.00pm in the Fox Bar at Grace Road and anyone was welcome to attend. All the three partners in the project were keen to establish a group of local people to address issues surrounding the proposed scheme and to assess whether any proposed solutions were working. The Cricket Club’s Chief Executive had been in post for two years and was unaware of some of the local concerns that had been expressed. The Club were keen to address these issues.
Steve Brown, Team Leader Planning Services, stated that no planning application had been received. Although the Council supported new sporting and housing developments in principle, any proposal had to satisfy issues of accessibility, traffic, environment and noise and disturbance to residents. Once a planning application was received, there would be widespread consultation with surrounding properties and a consultation period of 5-6 weeks could follow. The final decision on the application would be taken by the Planning Development Committee and would not be delegated to officers.
Following questions from members of the public, Mr Routledge stated that:-
· The Cricket Club would receive the income from the proposed 2 storey flats together with the rent for the Arena and corporate events.
· The period of construction would be 6 months if there were no delays, but this was dependent upon the cricket season and BSkyB so that the construction work did not impact upon the coverage of televised games.
· The Riders had looked for somewhere to develop an Arena for some 15 years, and this was the best value for money venue, as it allowed them to build an Arena at a cost of £2.4m by utilising the existing Mike Turner Suite as part of the Arena; instead of constructing a completely new build at a cost of £5m.
· Sport England were expected to fund 8-10 projects nationally.
· The parking issues associated with Riders games would be less than that for cricket games, as the capacity crowd in the Arena would not be more than 2,000 people.
· The Riders played in the winter months, and home games were on a Saturday from 7.30pm to 9.15pm and Sundays from 4.00pm to 6.00pm. There should be little noise breakout from the building.
· Due to the footprint of the Cricket Ground site, there would not be any further extension to the proposed Arena.
· The capacity for the crowds at cricket matches would be reduced from 7,000 to 4,200 as a result of the development.
· There were approximately 160 trees on the site subject to a Tree Preservation Order.
· The former Saffron Lane Velodrome site had been considered but was discounted once it received planning permission for the housing development.
· The users of the facility would be Leicester College from 9.00am to 5.00pm during term time, (some primary schools could also use it as well), the Riders and users for the Special Olympics and wheelchair basketball.
· Leicester College should not add to parking problems in surrounding streets as students would use public transport.
A number of members of the public expressed opposition to the proposals and in addition to comments that were answered above, they also stated that:-
· It was short sighted to build flats on the car park when the club were losing revenue.
· The possibility of developing the facility at Leicester Racecourse should be considered.
· There was a petition circulating opposing the development.
Councillor Clarke stated that he had been invited to join the Steering Group and there were also a number of residents meetings planned. Councillor Porter had also been invited to join the Steering Group. Councillor Clarke indicated that was happy to take any views forward.
Councillor Porter stated that he was happy to continue on the Steering Group and represent the views of those opposed to the development. He was aware that there were a large number in favour of the proposal, together with the City Mayor and Councillor Clarke, but equally there were a large number of residents against it and he wished to ensure that their views were represented and put forward at these meetings.