‘Positive stuff going on’ to enable stadium move

Behind the scenes there’s still ‘plenty going on’ as Maidenhead United look to get key stakeholders on side for the club’s move to a new stadium at Braywick Park.

In principle the club has been given the green light to press ahead with its development plans for the site, with the council releasing a 3.7hectare site, and the club is now in the process of putting together a planning application.

Having overcome that significant hurdle

Griffin said this week he is positive the move will go ahead, but it is still subject to planning permission, and neighbours Maidenhead RFC have said publicly they’re planning to object to the plans unless significant alterations are made.

The club is now in the process of undertaking further consultation with stakeholders on and around the site, and Griffin added this week that their plans wouldn’t be affected by the sad news that disability sports charity, SportsAble, had been forced to close after 40 years.

“I think behind the scenes there’s a lot going on and it’s all fairly positive,” said Griffin. “These projects take a lot of time, but at the moment it’s looking positive and we’re making progress behind the scenes.

“We hope it won’t be long before there’s news on that.

“The footprint of the land that’s been zoned for us by the council is next to SportsAble, so the relationship with the charity was always very positive, namely, they would keep all of their facilities and there would be no impact on them or their operations.

“But what they would have access to is some of the new community friendly facilities we were putting in at the new stadium, for example a sportshall type thing that would be ideal for wheelchair rugby and basketball for example.

“I know the current SportsAble has finished in its current guise, but what they do is fantastic and certainly the plan would be that if we were successful in building the new stadium at Braywick, all those facilities would be there for use by the same people, if it’s under a different name then so be it.

“But the offer for them to use those new facilities still stands. One of our reasons behind wanting to move is to provide better facilities, not just for the club but for the community, and they would very much feature in that in whatever guise they come out of this.

“We wish them all the best and hopefully they can get some of their issues resolved and at least carry on providing what they have been providing, even if it has to be done in a different way.”