D-day in Wasps’ bid for training ground
WASPS will learn this evening if their plans to establish a permanent training ground of their own have been successful.
Plans to change the use and modify Warwickshire College Sports Centre to create a new training base at the Henley-in-arden site were recommended for approval by Stratford-on-avon District Council last week.
The plans are due to go before the council’s planning committee tonight from 6pm.
The summary of recommendation was granted subject to the completion of Section 106, which will be a £50,000 contribution to a Henley-in-arden community sports project approved by the local parish council. This is to mitigate the loss of a 2G pitch and sports hall to the local community.
If successful at the planning meeting stage, Wasps aim to have their ‘elite’ facility up and running inside a year.
The Premiership rugby club had hoped to be moved in to their new home by the start of the 2020/21 season. But due to the knock-on effect of Covid-19, that is now likely to be put back to the 2021/22 campaign.
It would bring to an end Wasps’ long search for a permanent training ground base that predates their relocation to Coventry six years ago and stretches all the way back to 1999 when they left their spiritual home in Sudbury.
Wasps played their first game at the Ricoh Arena in December 2014 but didn’t move the business and their training operation to the region until the summer of 2016. An agreement was reached with grassroots club Broadstreet RFC for use and redevelopment of Ivor Preece Fields in Binley Woods.
Plans to build a state-of-the-art £7million facility at the Alan Higgs Centre in Coventry failed to materialise. More recently, an agreement was reached with Old Leamingtonians RFC in Leamington Spa – the town in which the majority of Wasps’ senior player base reside. However, no plans were ever submitted.
Wasps’ lack of a training ground to call their own was rumoured to have caused unrest among senior players and was reported to have been a reason that England star Elliot Daly left the club in 2019. However, both the club and the player subsequently refuted that claim.
Former Wasps captain James Haskell, in his final months before leaving for a second time in 2018, also shared his thoughts about the facilities on social media and later said the facilities had ‘more holes in them than Brexit’. Although, in a subsequent Twitter exchange, clarified his view by saying Broadstreet RFC has excellent grassroots facilities, but were ‘not what was promised’ to Wasps players.
A breakthrough appeared to have been made a little under a year ago when Wasps paid a deposit for the 13-acre Henley-in-arden site owned by Warwickshire College Group. However, this was immediately met with objections and the Henley Sports Centre Alliance was formed. They told the Telegraph in November 2019 that the ‘ heart will be ripped out of the community’ if the public were denied access and Wasps moved in.
They claimed the facility was used by 1,500 to 2,000 people per week and launched the Save The Henley in Arden Sports Centre’ petition, which attracted more than 2,800 signatures.
711 letters of objection were submitted to Wasps’ planning application, pointing to a ‘loss of well-used community facilities, pitches, sports hall and gym’, no alternative community provision and the site had not been ‘actively marketed’.
Just 11 letters of support were received, raising matters such as the prestige of having Wasps in Henley-in-arden and it benefiting the local economy.
The proposed training centre, if approved by the planning committee, aims to ‘create a facility for elite sport and training base for Wasps first team squad’. The report details that the changes will be mainly internal to provide offices, a main gym, changing rooms, physio/treatment area, medical room, kit/boot store and a kitchen. The existing 2G pitch will be resurfaced to provide a 3G pitch suitable for rugby. This has been a particular sticking point for Wasps since moving north to Coventry as they do not currently have direct access to an artificial grass pitch. Instead, they have used facilities at the Alan Higgs Centre, as well as at Warwick and Loughborough Universities. Particularly during the wet winter months, this has placed a strain on the club’s training schedule with players travelling between different sites across their working day due to the Broadstreet RFC pitches being waterlogged.
Once a vibrant community hub for sporting groups and teams, the Henley Sports Centre is now completely closed and WCG confirmed that the community use of the hall ceased in January 2020.
The site was the subject of an Asset of Community Value application which failed. The college provided financial information identifying year on year losses and it continuing in that format was not ‘realistic’.
The Telegraph understands Wasps have an agreement with Broadstreet RFC to remain at their current site until the move to Henley, pending planning approval.