New Stadium Rumour

Quoted from ska face

Lack of space is obviously the main issue, in that any decent sized site incorporating the land from the flats is hampered by a large block of residential dwellings between Kent Street and Albert Street. To do anything worthwhile in the area would need council intervention and CPOs, which would be costly and may be a long, protracted process.


[img]https://s33.postimg.cc/72i6nvpq7/cpo.jpg[/img]


Without removing the residential area (orange), you've a site of about 5.8acres, but if you do remove the dwellings (looks to be about 70 in total?), as well as incorporating the Agra site (red), that bumps the site up to 18.7acres.

If you knocked the market down and extended the site all the way down to Duncombe Street, taking in the car park and old ABC Cinema, you've a site of roughly 24 acres.

[img]https://s33.postimg.cc/t4d2bb4n3/site.jpg[/img]


The thing is though, the process is infinitely more difficult than finding the right amount of land and parachuting a new ground in, and this is where the hurdles pop up and costs start to sky rocket. It's buying the land, treating it, Section 106s, public realm improvements, highways and access, the other uses that are going to make it a 7-day income-generating venture - even if it's just a set of 6-a-side pitches, look at how much space they take up.

I'd love it Kev Keegan style if the club, council, business and even Central Govt could out their heads together and find a way of delivering what would be the biggest development in the town for generations, but I just think it's too big a challenge at the moment for a town without a pot to urine in.

What CANNOT be allowed to continue, though, is keeping the fans in the dark. We aren't just fans, we're residents, stakeholders, tax-payers, communities, the past, present and future of this area and a huge voice locally - whether this is in terms of speaking to friends, family and colleagues around the town, or in lobbying councilors and local business to come together on this and show some appetite to improve the town, and not just collect signatures to get the grass cut.

The whole thing needs a refresh. The telegraph are still referencing a study put together in 2015, and the club are still supposedly looking at a multi-site, housing/leisure/retail/training/football/bmx hybrid plan that the current developer has no idea how to deliver. I think the current proposal for Freeman St is a public square on the site around the old flats? That's got disaster written all over it, who the intercourse's gonna use that? Time to think big.

Quoted from monkeyboy

Look around Grimsby as a whole, there are loads of places to build a stadium.
people have got it in there heads it has to be in A180 corridor, why? there plenty of roads into Grimsby.
A lot of clubs would travel through Louth way or through Caister so mayybe look at sites  on those routes?

The land next to Morriosns for an example is is huge and im sure Strawson the farmer would sell for the right price.
This has always been about money with this stadium and if the right people arent going to get their pockets lined then thats where the issue lays, chairman councilors etc.

Of course it it should be for the town and the fans but as the lack of updates shows it isnt, its for for egos and the wallets.

Quoted from friskneymariner

Lots of money available in Coastal Communities Grant perhaps Club should be doing research how a new ground could enhance the community by doing outreach work in the west marsh.,.The club needs to appoint someone who is experienced in making grant applications.

Quoted from diehardmariner

Excellent post with obvious subject knowledge, the point in bold is nailed on.

I've said before that I have been told that the Freeman Street site options is far from off the tables, it wasn't from someone connected to the club or the council directly so I've always treat it with a pinch of salt but it more or less backs up the stuff raised on here.

I was told that the Red area which is the mostly derelict shop units and the Amber residential areas of Thesiger Street/Kent St are included in the overarching plans, but also the whole regeneration vision stretches up as far east as Victor Street and west as Central Hall.  That creates a big old area to work with if true.  As ska points out, there's no point in making a gesture of regeneration there.  If it's going to be done it has to be all in, this would be the regeneration plan for Grimsby with the knock-on coming elsewhere.  The Town centre is dead and is currently kept alive only by lunchtime trade from office buildings, many of which are council.  The plans I was told about was of the council building a super-hub that incorporates the vast majority of their buildings under one roof as part of this regeneration.  The sheer number of workers that would move up to the Riby Square area would breath new life into the area in an instant, freeing up the Town centre to be more of an entertainment based complex.  

I don't know the technicalities of compulsory purchase orders or anything like that, nor indeed how far down the line anyone would be with that.  

Let's put it this way, if money or planning permission wasn't an issue, this site ticks all the boxes for me.  It boosts the area in a way we can only dream of.  Peaks Parkway on the other hand feels a bit like it's just somewhere that we can build the stadium, rather than the best site or any knock on benefits to the area.  

Quoted from Dan

It won't happy anyhow, there is no money or vision.