SOUTHEND | New Southend United Stadium | 22,000 | Approved

[Noostairz]

thought we had a thread for this but i can't find it anywhere...

Southend get stadium green light

Southend United have been given the go-ahead to build a new 22,000-seater stadium at Fossetts Farm.

They got planning permission for the project last year and were waiting on the response from an inquiry called by the Secretary of State.

Chairman Ron Martin told Southend's website: "The decision issued by the Secretary of State approved the club's new stadium plans.

"This is without a doubt a pivotal moment in Southend United's history."

Martin added: "Once the final points of the decision notice have been considered we will waste no time in commencing construction."

[Noostairz]

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[ben77]

Looks like it might actually be a decent design. Is it out of town?

[canarywondergod]

looks like a fantastic little stadium, im glad they decided to differ slightly from the generic bowls of late

[Schmeek]

What are they going to call it - the 'Giant Spoon stadium'?
Seriously, looks nice. Quite large for Southend as well I think (no disrespect intended).

[DarJoLe]

It's being built on Greenbelt land. There is no public transport provision apart from one bus route. The main road connecting it to the A127 into London needs expanding but that is being stopped by nimbys and eco-protestors. The development is being built in an area dedicated to more out of town shopping, pulling people away from an already deteriorating town centre.

No joined up thinking whatsoever. Typical Southend Council then.

[ben77]

I thought there would be a catch... Nice stadium rubbish location. There must be somewhere near the centre of the town (its not exactly an Historic market town is it)!! Glad i'm going to Roots Hall for the first time on Tuesday, tick it off my list before it goes..

[StiffUpper]

Originally Posted by DarJoLe

It's being built on Greenbelt land. There is no public transport provision apart from one bus route. The main road connecting it to the A127 into London needs expanding but that is being stopped by nimbys and eco-protestors. The development is being built in an area dedicated to more out of town shopping, pulling people away from an already deteriorating town centre.

No joined up thinking whatsoever. Typical Southend Council then.

Agree with some of that, and they haven't outgrown Roots Hall, shame as well that some of the site has been sold off for flats and stuuf. They got 35k in their once (albeit v Liverpool)

The A127 upgrade would require massive, circuitous and destructive bypasses. I want to protect what I know, so yes, I'm a NIMBY and proud. Not like I'm asking them to put the A127 in some other county is it?

(Excuse the edge DJL, baby's screaming, aaah)

[PhilBee]

http://http://www.propertyweek.com/story.asp?sectioncode=297&storycode=3108313&c=1

[StiffUpper]

From propertyweek above

‘The new club will stimulate economic regeneration within Southend, and enhance its profile as a key destination within the Thames Gateway.’

An out of town site isn't going to do that, even the change of use of Roots Hall isn't going to do that as it's not a town centre site.

[EssexDan86]

As a proud Southender, myself and probably about 2/3 of the town are behind the scheme. There really is no suitable site more centrally located than this, as all the brownfield land has been used for housing developments or has been brought up by the new University campus.

Given better facilties, the club will outgrow Roots Hall. Other than Colchester United (currently building a new ground), our smal lground was the laughing stock of the league. The season last year in the Championship saw that we could easily sell the place out, and here's hoping better facilities and a better profile will give us something of a Reading/Wigan effect and hopefully get more local people interested in their local team and stop them blindly following West Ham, Spurs and Arsenal!

As for the impact the retail development will have on the town centre, the sort of shops that would be found in the development would be more likely to be the sort of things you'd get in a large out-of-town site with any luck. Overall there'd be a benefit to the town as a whole as it'll mean fewer people have to go to Basildon and Lakeside to shop. There's a great deal of public mistrust about the High Street in its current state anyway (everyone moans about the number of pound shops), and even more public mistrusts about Renaissance Southend, the urban regeneration company. This great stadium development should hopefully serve as a warning and an impetus for them to buck up their ideas and come up with a truly special plan for the town centre in a competetive way - too long has Southend been held back by the NIMBYs and more recently the eco-terrorists at 'Camp Bling'.

Read more detail about the debate here: http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/bluesstadium/

And Mr StiffUpper, I'm not surprised you're towing that line of argument being a Hammer fan!

[StiffUpper]

Hello Dan,

I'm from Bas so pretty local, though not a native like yourself.

Interested in what you were saying.

What always amazes me is how awful Victoria Avenue is, with those great dilapidated concrete lumps overlooking the dual carriageway.

I recall seeing in the Echo last year plans which would link up Southend Vic to the High Street, they looked pretty good to me at first sight. Any progress on that?

[EssexDan86]

Hey,
I know what you mean about Victoria Avenue, it's a real shame it's got into that state. Never used to be too bad really, I quite like the whole idea of a long tree-lined boulevard lined with tall buildings, but it's not exactly ideal when half of those buildings are now vacant! One of the old offices was successfully converted to flats called Skyline Plaza a couple of years ago, but the process has really dragged with the other empties (been lots of rowing about how many affordable flats to put in, housing for key workers etc).

Yes, there are plans in place to provide greater linkage between the High Street and Victoria Avenue, it's on here somewhere: http://www.renaissancesouthend.co.uk/

There's already the new link through the redeveloped Victoria Plaza Shopping Centre and according to today's Echo some consultants have been appointed to improve accessibility between Victoria Ave and the High Street (not sure what'll happen unless they remove that gigantic roundabout), details at the bottom of this article: http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/sout...oo_radical.php

That's about the gist of it; not too much has been done yet really - a lot of RS's plans are still pipe dreams that everyone moans about!

[Curious Orange]

All has been quiet on the Southend Stadium front, mainly due to the recession and multiple court appearances. However there is some news - Southend have permission to build the stadium in stages, basically building three sides and not the main stand for the time-being.

Southend United FC
Southend Standard

... assuming that they avoid the tax man's latest winding up order!

[italiano_pellicano]

any news ?

[RMB2007]

Hmmm, we'll see:

Blues stadium could be ready in 2014

SUFC and Sainsbury’s said in a joint statement: “Work on the new store is continuing behind the scenes to secure the necessary technical approvals from Southend Council. At the same time we are progressing the contracts and programming of the project.

“We hope we have all necessary approvals in the very near future which would enable us to complete the stadium in 2014.”

http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/1003...n_2014/?ref=mr

Only three sides to start with, well, I think that's still the idea:



Location of new site compared to the current ground:



Render of the completed stadium:

[DarJoLe]

So many fundamental design errors with this project I don't know where to start.

[Curious Orange]

The one thing that puzzles me about the split construction plan is why they aren't building the main Grandstand in the first phase - surely they'd be missing out on the bulk of their revenue generating facilities?

[topalex]

Originally Posted by DarJoLe

So many fundamental design errors with this project I don't know where to start.

I'd be interested in hearing a few of them DarJole. Not disagreeing with you by the way and I have heard a few things chucked at the design in the past ('another boring bowl' etc) but what are some of the design flaws? Do you mean with the stadium itself or the whole development plan (flats, retail)?

Either way Southend have been promising start dates for this for years and each time nothing happens. This time though its a joint press release with Sainsburys (who are the major players in this) so maybe a digger will actually appear on site!

[BIGcider APPLE]

Do they have naming rights sorted yet? Surely Silverspoon are in the running?