New plans for Worcester City Football Club stadium: have your say

A public consultation was launched last week on Worcester City Football Club’s revised plans for a community sports stadium at Perdiswell, off Bilford Road in the north of the city.

The revised planning application, jointly prepared by the Club and its Supporters’ Trust, sees the proposed stadium moved from its original position, in response to concerns raised in the 2015 consultation over the original plans.

A 21-day statutory consultation period began on March the 1st, giving Worcester residents and other interested parties the chance to have their say on the detailed plans.

Detailed consideration will be given to all consultation comments received before the application is referred to Worcester City Council’s Planning Committee for a formal decision.

The application is for a floodlit football stadium with a capacity of just over 4,400, along with a separate floodlit all-weather 3G pitch, plus car parking.

The plans have been revised to ensure the scheme has less impact on the Worcester to Birmingham Canal Conservation Area. The main stadium is proposed to be built to the north-east of the recently refurbished and extended Perdiswell Leisure Centre. Its new position also means it would be further from the leisure centre’s changing rooms.

The stadium has also been redesigned so that it would more closely match the look of the leisure centre. It is now proposed to have brickwork lower walls and an aluminium-clad upper section with colours ranging from white to light blue.

The stadium would feature 15-metre high lighting columns and would have extensive landscape on its eastern side, to limit its impact on the canal and the adjoining dog track.

The separate all-weather pitch is proposed to be moved from its original position to the north of the main stadium to sit beside the leisure centre on its north-west side. Floodlit with 10-metre high lighting columns, the all-weather pitch would be available for community hire and the applicants have held discussions with Heart of Worcestershire College and Tudor Grange Academy about their teams playing there on a regular basis.

The scheme would include a car park with 82 spaces, including two with charging points for electric vehicles. The applicants claim 823 supporters would turn out on an average match day and would need to use 97 parking spaces. To make up the shortfall in parking spaces, the applicants are proposing to use some of the leisure centre’s parking spaces.

Residents can read the planning application and give their views on it by logging on to www.worcester.gov.uk/planning, going to Planning Application Search and entering the application number, P14M0176.

The consultation closes at 5pm on March 21.