Warwick District Council: Councillor promises "really close look" at Leamington stadium costs

Councillor Jonathan Chilvers (Green, Leamington Brunswick), the district’s portfolio holder for resources, made the commitment having faced questions from Councillor Judy Falp (Whitnash Residents’, Whitnash) over the potential financial implications.

It was revealed in April that a new 4,000 capacity ground for the Brakes, including an artificial pitch and community uses around fitness, parent and toddler, community education and community health provision, was on the table as part of the wider development at Fusilier’s Way, Myton Green.

The wider plans feature housing, education provision to help cater for nearby housing developments, a new athletics track and offices as well as the new Myton Path – a path and cycleway connecting Myton Road and Fusilier’s Way – plus wider connectivity with Warwick Technology Park.

A masterplan and stage one – Myton Path and the new athletics facility has already been approved with a neighbourhood centre and the repurposing of a listed farmhouse next on the agenda.

The football stadium and its enabling development is part of the third phase due to be considered by cabinet on September 4 once more detail has come together, although while responding to the question, Cllr Chilvers suggested it may be pushed back to the following meeting on October 17.

Cllr Falp queried the costs of the project, including those associated with plans to locate a travellers’ site on the current ground.

She also asked whether the club would receive any council funding, what length of lease would be offered and on what terms, whether the council would receive any income from the site and what the value of the land is at the new stadium’s potential location.

“It could be housing land as we were informed that if the stadium was not built, the land would be used for housing, so I want the price (the council would receive) on housing rather than anything else,” she said.

Cllr Chilvers replied: “The last time cost estimates on the community stadium and associated works were done was about a year ago and we are about to go into the next phase of looking at what they are.

“It tends to get more detailed each time they are looked at so I think the questions you have raised will get covered in that period and in the run up to decisions we will be briefing all councillors.

“The community stadium is a very substantial project, we are talking really big stuff, so we will be taking a really close look at the whole project because we have to make sure we have the money to be able to deliver it.

"We have to go in with our eyes open.”

There are various planning stages to go through for the stadium proposals before a tentative target date of starting building work in early 2027 in order to open the stadium in July 2028..

It would be a particularly big step forward for the football club which was a major player at the sharp end of the non-league game until the 1980s.