New Stadium Rumour

Quoted from heppy88

As much as I would love to see the stadium built as part of a regeneration of the Freeman Street area, I believe Peaks Parkway is still very much the preferred (and still) the only site.

Take a look on the Extreme site and the community stadium at Peaks Parkway still sits proudly amongst the projects Extreme are currently working on. Also, I noticed Extreme have added that the site will contain a new Leisure Centre, in addition to the new ice rink. I’m sure this is a new addition from the original proposal?

I believe if Freeman Street was genuinely on the table Extreme would have removed Peaks parkway from their site.

Also, for the last 12 months I believe architects (the same ones that designed Media City) have been working on detailed designs, again for the Peaks Parkway location.

Seriously do we believe all this time, money and effort will be scrapped, after the council themselves have already nominated PP as the preferred site?

In an ideal world Freeman street ticks all the boxes and would have the majority of N.E. Lincs behind it. I believe if any announcement is due, it will be a revealing of the detailed designs. The silence is due to not wanting to wake the PP Nimbys from their slumber.

What's the gen on the architects? Obviously nothing has been announced about this, and it would be pretty unusual appointing them before funding was reasonably certain. Who's paying for them? No developer has appeared and the club wouldn't spend the money it hasn't got (surely?).

The ice rink was in previous statements about PP. Not sure about the leisure centre though.

Not sure the argument about letting sleeping NIMBYs lie holds much water. The process means they'll have their say whenever firm plans come forward. They've already been mobilised and are just waiting for the balloon to go up.

Interesting that the rumour you mention is about the Media City architects. That project was about regenerating transforming a rundown area in a dirty old town with a mix of buildings, public realm space etc. Good experience. (I'm adding 2 and 2 together and making 5 here of course   )

As for Extreme. Pfft!

Quoted from Grim up north

The new stadium needs to be within footfall of the m/asses ideally central  with easy links to all directions and guess what ,that's Peaks Parkway. The lack of any form of development in this town for over three decades leads people to panic at the thought of a 4 car traffic jam. Let's have a fresh venue with facilities to be proud of and leave freemo prime for affordable housing.People wouldn't leave their car there to visit the redeveloped cinema and the same effect would be seen in a new stadium.Lets start making landmarks the whole Town can enjoy in an area for the whole family.

Have you seen the monstrosities built where Darleys once stood?
Who exactly are they aimed at???

The MASSIVE steps to get up to each dwelling rules out any families with small children and pushchairs, the elderly, and disabled etc.

Crickey even able-bodied people would soon get peed off by scaling them every time they go in or out.

The builders must know something about potential flooding the rest of the area doesn't another reason to relocate Fenty.

Working on plans for PP is fine but the last known shortfall was £13m and growing by the day!

Quoted from Mrs Doyle

Have you seen the monstrosities built where Darleys once stood?
Who exactly are they aimed at???

The MASSIVE steps to get up to each dwelling rules out any families with small children and pushchairs, the elderly, and disabled etc.

Crickey even able-bodied people would soon get peed off by scaling them every time they go in or out.

The builders must know something about potential flooding the rest of the area doesn't another reason to relocate Fenty.

Like I jokingly said-"Build the stadium on stilts "

Quoted from Mrs Doyle

Have you seen the monstrosities built where Darleys once stood?
Who exactly are they aimed at???

The MASSIVE steps to get up to each dwelling rules out any families with small children and pushchairs, the elderly, and disabled etc.

Crickey even able-bodied people would soon get peed off by scaling them every time they go in or out.

The builders must know something about potential flooding the rest of the area doesn't another reason to relocate Fenty.

The whole of Lincolnshire is classed as being at risk of flood, I did a job for a farmer out in the sticks and part of the plan for him to be granted planning permission to build a new house was to build the ground floor I think at least 1 meter off the ground level. If you go down Orchard Drive the old part of Guilford street that got knocked down, they were built well before Darleys they are over a meter off ground level. Incidentally the void under the farmers ground floor could easily be used as a wine cellar or store but the plan didn't allow any use of that and had to be sealed off so no access to it.

Quoted from Grim up north

The new stadium needs to be within footfall of the masses ideally central  with easy links to all directions and guess what ,that's Peaks Parkway. The lack of any form of development in this town for over three decades leads people to panic at the thought of a 4 car traffic jam. Let's have a fresh venue with facilities to be proud of and leave freemo prime for affordable housing.People wouldn't leave their car there to visit the redeveloped cinema and the same effect would be seen in a new stadium.Lets start making landmarks the whole Town can enjoy in an area for the whole family.

The whole idea of a development at the top of Freeman Street is to reclaim that area back for the people of North East Lincolnshire.  It wouldn't/shouldn't be just a identikit stadium dumped where the flats are and then fans have the benefit of getting some frozen ready meals from Farmfoods after the game.  It would be unrecognisable from what it is today.  

I cannot stress enough how important I believe that the regeneration of that area is to the Town itself.  We are incredibly fortunate to have an area with that much potential in it, from the pumping station at the Riverhead right up to the boundaries of the Estuary.  Look at the regeneration that other towns and cities have done around their waterways, then look at what we've not done.   Think beyond the derelict and decaying buildings around there, think of what could be.   If you get chance drive through the docks and look around the water area where the boats and yachts are near Ross House.  It's bloody beautiful and that's in its current state, imagine what we could do with the whole stretch of the Estuary?  

I know the argument is that the land around the docks is ABP owned but I cannot believe that a huge business like ABP have no interest in making the best use of their land, especially when it would make a profit as opposed to doing absolutely nothing at present.   A forward thinking council will get them on board and make this work.

If anything like this is to work it has to be all-in, no exceptions.  The council are wasting time, money and energy in things like the Sea View Street regeneration, it doesn't need it!  There's absolutely no benefit to anyone from it.  The focus should be East Marsh/Riby Square and then carry that right through up to the North Prom at Cleethorpes.  That's the gateway to the area, that's where the money would be generated and that's where jobs would be made.  A half-arsed attempt at regeneration by putting some cheap social housing up and a few concrete parks will do little other than create building jobs for a few years, we need to think longer term than that.

There is so much potential there that it's painful when our own council seem unaware of it.  

Stadium goes up at Peaks Parkway and within ten years it'll be surrounded by soulless housing estates with absolutely no potential for future development and the opportunity has gone.   Build the stadium and the whole regeneration development at Riby Square/Freeman Street and you give new life to this area.

Regarding the hopes of a Freeman Street site, I can't help but wonder how much additional expense this would add to the plan. Compulsory purchase of lots of property (derelict though some it may be), the cost of tearing down and removing the buildings then preparing the area for construction. I can't help but think it would add a vast amount to the cost. The PP plan obviously relies on the council selling off empty packets of land at a favourable rate so you would expect the cost of this to be a great deal lower. Its not a coincidence that most new stadia are constructed on the outskirts of towns on empty/farmed land. Just how many clubs have built a brand new stadium in the centre of a built up area in recent years? Obviously, Arsenal and Spurs, but they aren't comparable to us. Brentford are looking at something as well, but they do have a vastly wealthy owner and I'd imagine the land at Griffin Park is worth a huge amount of money to help fund it.

Don't get me wrong, the idea of a vast redevelopment around Freeman Street for the good of the town and the club is a nice one but I can't help but think it is a pipe dream. The council can't afford to support this and I think current central. government rules don't allow them to borrow to invest. There isn't likely to be any money from central government. EU funding obviously a non-starter these days. When there hasn't been any serious investment in the town by central government since the collapse of the fishing industry, why is there likely to be some now, especially as the Tories are still fixated on 'balancing the books'?

I'd also have to say that, even if it is ultimately built, will they come? Opening up the centre of town and Freeman Street for entertainment and social purposes is all well and good, but that's not going to create the good quality jobs which will allow the populace to actually have the money to spend in the new areas. It will take decades of investment to regenerate this town after the 'managed decline' since the 1970s. I can't see this coming and certainly not under the Tories.

I think the trend now is to move back towards stadiums getting built in the Towns rather than on the outskirts.  Thankfully it's now accepted that out-of-town stadiums are not what they were hoped to be.  A truly community stadium needs to be central so a large number of people can benefit from the added extras.  There's also the green argument too about forcing traffic onto the roads etc.  A while back someone put up an excellent link to a big piece of work a firm did about this and how the trend had really changed.

Cost - I genuinely don't know what the costings would be.  I'm neither an accountant nor a Town planner.  What I do know is that for god knows how many years this local authority has wasted god knows how much money on hair-brained schemes that have little or no value.  How much was spent on the farce of paving the area around Grimsby Train Station?  How much will be spent on re-vamping an already vibrant Sea View Street?  How much was spent on the traffic light changes at the Hospital, which I can see have served absolutely no benefit?  How much gets spent on the endless feasibility studies that are commissioned every time we get a whiff of any funding but no actually development?  

Clearly NELC wouldn't have the money to do this alone.  They would need to seek assistance from outside bodies, I'm guessing companies like Dong (who appear to be bending over backwards to invest in this town) would need be involved. Ultimately any development has to be about creating jobs and then maintaining that level of employment.  The council have been notoriously closed when it comes to outside investment, that needs to change.  If a company is willing to invest here, NELC need to bend over backwards to welcome them.  

Will they come?  A lot of people already come to the area (Cleethorpes) in peak season.  To do so the vast majority will pass the Riby Square area.  You've got a captive audience straight away.  I appreciate the argument that Grimsby/Cleethorpes is off the beat and track but I genuinely believe that if you build something good enough to attract people, they'll come and with that it'll create industry and jobs.  Where is the nearest decent water sports facility to here?  We've got a bloody big Estuary on our doorsteps and other than small business or individuals doing their own thing, we're making no use of people wanting to do this stuff or the ability we have to do it.  Now I'm not saying a watersports facility would suddenly make this area vibrant, but it's the notion that we have to make best use of the potential we have on our doorstep.  For decades we've fallen behind other towns and cities who have shown a forward approach to investment, we carry on standing still and we're going to fall further and further behind.

Preach brother!

Exactly. It’s excrement or bust for Grimsby at the minute when places like Barnsley, Hull, Wakefield, Lincoln are all having tens of millions invested in town centre regeneration and we’re here with our thumbs up our arses.