DEVELOPERS have been accused of hiding from residents after they pulled out of a public meeting on Marlow PC's new stadium plans.

North West Estates decided not to attend a heated debate on Tuesday evening which saw Marlow Football Club's stadium proposal, to move from Oak Tree Road to the Little Marlow gravel pits, slated.

North West was due to attend alongside the club but pulled out at midday claiming it was led to believe it would only be meeting with councillors.
Residents reacted angrily at Little Marlow Parish Council's special planning meeting and called for North West to show its face.

Mike Walker, 50, of Marlow Road, accused them of having "something to hide".

Roger Fisher, of Fern Lane, said: "Could we have it placed on record that although we appreci­ate Mr Frith's presence we take great exception that North West Estates have refused to come. "

Ray Frith, a director of Marlow FC, was left to face the public alone at the meeting. He said North West had taken advice from planning con­sultants and hadn't attended because it was "not the time to explain fully the proposals". Instead it was looking to stage another public exhibition on the plans - but this time in Little Marlow.

However, a date has not been fixed and the deadline for views on the plans is January 4.

More than 70 people attended the meeting at :he Cricket Pavilion and some were forced to stand.
Although the council said it wouldn't express views. 

Cllr Barbara Wallis referred to the Little Marlow gravel pits Supplementary Planning Guidance, a consultation on how the land should :>e used. She said it was agreed that a countryside }ark was preferred - not a stadium.
She said: "As a parish council we would like to see this implemented."

Fiona Beckley, of The Moor, said the planned stadium access road was not wide enough.
She added: "We are going to face more noise than now with the A4155 and the A404."

Mr Frith said the club had exhausted its five year search for a new stadium and had examined around 40 sites.
He said if another was available in Marlow they would happily build there but it wasn't.
He denied the move was for financial gain and said the gravel pits were safe to build on. He said there was "scaremongering" over the land being contaminated but only low levels of methane had been discovered.

Although the club's average attendance is around 150, the entire capacity of the ground will be more than 4,000 [500 seating]. This is to accom­modate higher crowds on occasions and the club's 23 teams which are forced to play at other sites because of restrictions at the current ground.
A spokesman for North West Estates said it thought the meeting was going to be solely with councillors and not a public meeting. He said: "We had already had a public exhibition at Court Garden and received an enormous number of statements and comments."
He denied the company was trying to avoid the public

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03/07/2007

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