FEWER than one in five respondents to the Bucks Free Press’ independent stadium survey back plans for a community stadium and sports village.

82 per cent of the respondents to the BFP’s two week long stadium survey vehemently oppose plans for a 17,500-20,000 capacity community stadium.

BFP readers also overwhelmingly rejected a sports village, do not believe the project justifies building on Green Belt land and think Wycombe District Council should pull out of the project now without making further financial investment.

Respondents said not enough information about the scheme had been released by the authority or Wycombe Sports Developments Ltd before or during the council’s own public consultation held between September 17 and October 29 last year.

And our survey reveals readers would still be against the contentious proposals even if the council proved it would make money out of any investment and both Wycombe Wanderers and London Wasps would benefit from any development.

Methodology.

The BFP decided to carry out its own independent survey because of the controversy surrounding the council’s public consultation and its findings.

The Free Press received more than 1,800 responses to its two week stadium survey which was carried out between January 21 and February 4.

Readers could fill out the survey online or by completing a form printed in the BFP, Marlow Free Press, Midweek and South Bucks Star.

The results were sent off to a professional back-check firm which immediately removed anonymously completed forms and possible fake responses – leaving a total of 1738. Of this figure, 988 were thoroughly validated and checked by the firm.

These results were then whizzed off to the number crunchers at Maven Research, who analysed both sets of results.

Maven found little difference between the validated and un-validated responses. Three per cent was the greatest difference found between the two sets of results.

Throughout this report the BFP refers to the validated results. The un-validated response percentage appears in brackets next to that figure.

Some 92 (90) per cent of respondents to the BFP’s stadium survey live in Buckinghamshire, of which 14 per cent called themselves Wasps fans and 28 per cent said they supported Wanderers.

Half of all respondents use the various sporting facilities around the district.

Maven Research did not have any input into the design or conduct of this of the survey, or the sampling method. The High Wycombe firm gave up its time for free to analyse the findings.

The firm gave a presentation to representatives from the interested parties at the BFP’s Loudwater offices on Tuesday.

Bucks Free Press: Maven Research

The team from Maven Research.

Members from the Groups Against Stadium Proposals (GASP), Wycombe Sports Village Group (WSVG) and Buckinghamshire New University attended.

As did Liberal Dem Cllr Trevor Snaith, Conservative Cllr Alex Collingwood – who called in the project – and WDC spatial planning manager Duncan McCorquodale.

The BFP also invited WSDL and all eight members of WDC’s Cabinet – but no-one from either of these two parties were able to attend the briefing.

Results.

NOTE: Throughout this report the BFP refers to the validated results. The un-validated response percentage appears in brackets next to that figure.

82 per cent of all respondents voted against the idea of a 17,500-20,000 capacity stadium at Wycombe Air Park in Booker, Gt Marlow.

Of that figure, 89 per cent of voters gave a home address in Bucks. The biggest supporters of the stadium plan, 45 per cent, were London Wasps fans.

84 (87) per cent of readers do not back the idea of a sports village. But should any development get the green light, residents named a swimming pool, football, tennis and gym facilities on their most wanted list for a sports village.

Hotel and restaurants were also high on the list, ahead of hockey and rugby pitches.

88 (89) per cent of all respondents do not want the project at Wycombe Air Park –named as Wycombe Sports Developments Ltd and Wycombe District Council’s preferred site for the scheme.

Unsurprisingly, residents who live in Booker, Lane End and Marlow - closest to the proposed site - are the most vocal against the move to Booker.

A massive 90 per cent of all respondents do not believe the stadium project warrants the development of Green Belt land.

90 (89) per cent think the council should not have any further financial investment and walk away from the mooted project, our survey reveals.

And, interestingly, 83 per cent of people would still be against the stadium plan even if the council were to make a financial return and both clubs were to benefit from new surroundings.

Meanwhile, just 15 per cent of all respondents to the BFP’s survey were satisfied with the information provided by the council and WSDL before, and during WDC’s public consultation over the hotly debated project.

Some 8,376 people took part in the council’s consultation, of which 74 per cent voted Wycombe Air Park as the site with the ‘best potential’ for a stadium.

But the council’s consultation was called ‘flawed’ and ‘skewed’ by opponents, who highlighted that almost half of all ‘Booker backers’ lived outside the Wycombe district.

The authority also came under fire for not giving residents the chance to reject the proposals outright, while WSDL was criticised for emailing Wasps’ fans a Lawrence Dallaglio-endorced step-by-step guide for completing the consultation in favour of the Booker bid.

But the council defended its consultation and said it had to consult people who lived outside of the district. WSDL announced it was ‘buoyed’ by the council’s results.

Editor Steve Cohen said: “We’ve never said our survey is a comprehensive district-wide consultation but it does reflect the strongly held views of many of our readers and it would be unwise, in our opinion, for the council and WSDL to ignore this.

“We have been neutral throughout this debate and we would be happy to continue to work with all parties as the debate continues.”

Maven Research's stadium report

See links below for full reaction, Maven's website and previous stadium stories.