Club owner to build racehorse training facility

SWINDON Town owner Lee Power has finally been given the goahead to build a racehorse training facility in Highworth.

In October last year Mr Power put in two linked applications to construct a new training facility for the football club at the disused Twelve Oaks Golf Club on the edge of the town, and an extensive training yard for racehorses.

The plan would see 10 hectares on the western side of the course used for an all-weather gallop, 20 stables, a large American barn with 20 loose horseboxes as well as a lunge pit and rooms for tack and accommodation for stable hands.

Mr Power said he would train his own horses there. The trainer at the yard would be Sean Curran, who, Mr Power said, would be able to build on burgeoning success.

He said: “A championship trainer can only compliment the environment, becoming an asset to the current equestrian community.”

The borough council’s planning committee approved the football training complex but was concerned by a letter sent in by the owners of Crouch Farm, a smaller livery business on land next to the site, about galloping horses frightening their horses walking on a path between the two.

The gallop runs along the western and northern edge of the site where it comes close to Crouch Farm.

Members told the council’s director of planning to approve the plan if suitable conditions could be agreed. They have now been settled and the proposal can go ahead.

Planners have given permission for the development to go ahead as long as the gallop is only used between 7am and 12.30pm.