CARDS NOT STACKED UP ON PLANS!
DEVELOPER Wayne Gold is weighing up whether to appeal the decision which saw the redevelopment of Woking’s stadium overwhelmingly rejected at a Council planning meeting – but says it is unlikely he will submit revised plans.
The long-awaited scheme to build a new 9,026-capacity ground – along with more than 1,000 flats – was voted against by eight councillors, with one abstention, on Tuesday evening.
The project was said to secure the club’s long-term future while enhancing the local community, featuring a medical centre claimed to be able to be used by 14,000 patients.
However, the plans received significant objection from local residents, largely due to the size of the five housing blocks which ranged from two to 11 storeys.
During two-and-a-half hours of debate, the committee raised many issues including the size and density of the housing and the effect on local roads.
Gold, owner of GolDev Ltd, who has been overseeing the project with partners Dukelease, now have the option to appeal the decision.
“In all likelihood, to be confirmed hopefully next week, we will be appealing,” Gold told The NLP. “The process is we confirm to the Secretary of State we attend to appeal, then we lodge an appeal against the refusal and ultimately the appeal is determined by the government. They appoint an inspector to look at the application and their decision is final.
Inappropriate
“The whole process from start to end probably takes about a year, give or take.”
Although the Council planning inspector recommended to the committee the plans should be approved, not one committee member was in favour.
“You just never know, it’s an unknown quantity,” said Gold. “You’re dealing with people on a planning committee that live locally and listen to local views and opinions.
“One would like to think if it goes to Secretary of State they will look at planning policies and not local politics.”
However, should the appeal fail, Gold won’t be revising the plans. “It’s highly unlikely unless we can go ten stories underground,” he added.
Woking chairman Rosemary Johnson believes it wouldn’t be a good look for the football club to entertain an appeal.
“Our landlord is the council, the council will be obviously defending the councillors’ decision and I think it would be inappropriate for the club to be party to an appeal,” Johnson told The NLP.
“It is hard to take, it’s failed but it’s not the end of the world, there are other options out there.”
IT WAS one of the most important nights in Woking’s 131-year history – and for once the result wasn’t being settled on the pitch. Kick-off was earlier too on Tuesday night – 7pm – as hundreds, possibly thousands, of supporters and local residents streamed the council planning committee meeting where the club’s ambitious redevelopment plans were voted on.
The proposed scheme was for Kingfield to be completely rebuilt and expanded to a 9,026 capacity with non-matchday facilities to generate revenue and a built-in medical centre said to be able to facilitate 14,000 patients. To finance it, developer GolDev Ltd had planned a new neighbourhood of 1,048 homes – 468 of them in the affordable housing category – which drew the most criticism from local residents over the high-rise blocks in the leafy, out-of-town Surrey suburb.
One councillor described the planning application as the ‘most controversial’ he had ever decided on with 1,800 objections lodged but with 4,500 postcards in support delivered to the council offices by the football club. Woking have been trying to redevelop their ground for almost 30 years – Kingfield is now tired and expensive to maintain.
The stand behind the dugouts, where the boardroom and changing rooms are housed, has stood for more than 100 years and is in danger of, literally, falling down. Other upgrades are needed to satisfy the safety inspector.
This is the closest the club has come to sealing a development, which was said to secure its long-term future and give them a platform to reach the EFL. Alas, it fell at the final hurdle. By the time the crucial vote arrived at 9.28pm, it had been grim online viewing for supporters as the committee flagged each and every hole in the plan, criticising its design and character, bulk and mass, housing mix, loss of light and overlooking neighbouring homes, and insufficient parking. The final result: 8-0. It might have been worse but for one abstention yet it was still the worst display since Woking’s 7-0 defeat at Hyde in December 2012.
So, what now? It looks likely GolDev owner Wayne Gold will appeal the decision although a reversal would seem unlikely given the committee voted almost unanimously against. Should the appeal fail, Gold says it is unlikely he would revise the plans which he claims to have spent ‘many millions’ on putting together.
Drone-gate
In my opinion, Woking should explore their options with a different, more established and experienced developer. GolDev hadn’t delivered a project of this size before – a similar scheme it tried with Braintree Town also failed.
Early on in the project, Gold stated at a fans’ forum how he had no interest in football despite, at the time, being the man set to eventually become the majority shareholder.
There was another PR own-goal dubbed ‘drone-gate’ where Gold was caught by local residents flying a drone nearby the stadium during lockdown at the peak of the Coronavirus outbreak.
Watching the planning committee dismantle the application was embarrassing for the Woking board, who have worked tirelessly to find a solution and put countless hours towards the project they so desperately hoped would be the answer.
In the weeks leading up to the meeting, the phrase ‘now or never’ was attached to the scheme. There is a danger Woking’s volunteer-led board will become demoralised at this latest setback but chairman Rosemary Johnson remains positive.
“There are least three options out there and we have to work out what the right one is for the club,” she told The NLP. “I would hope within 12 months we would have a plan up and running. This one failed, we cannot dwell on that.”
Johnson, a former mayor of Woking, is likely to have known from experience in the weeks before the meeting that the outcome wasn’t going to be positive. Indeed, within 15 minutes of the result, a personal statement was published on the club’s website expressing her disappointment.
Driving force
One positive from the planning meeting was how councillors accepted the club needed to be supported – now they must act on their words. Woking Borough Council own the land where Kingfield sits, they must devise a plan with the club about how to secure its long-term future, ideally with a development and appropriate housing – not with taxpayer handouts to keep it going.
There is still the immediate issue of repairing and maintaining the ground. Johnson says the club has the money to do it this season with emphasis on ‘this season’. The more money spent on Kingfield will impact manager Alan Dowson’s playing budget which is already in the bottom four of the National League with the club still part-time.
Dowson, in his two years at the club, has not only excelled on the pitch but has been the driving force in the community, not that Woking were struggling in that department.
The club has won numerous awards for its work in the local area, not least The NLP’s National Game Awards Community Club of the Year in 2014. It is difficult to do their community efforts justice and that was one of the main points in campaigning for a new ground, imagine what could be done with significantly better facilities. This is why the council must recognise what an asset the football club is to the town. It seems like it does but will their actions show they do?