Wycombe District Council and clubs extend partnership for stadium plan

Wycombe District Council's cabinet members extended a 'collaboration agreement' with Wanderers and Wasps owner Steve Hayes for the next six months - with £60,000 allocated to cover the work done in that period.

The agreement with Wycombe Sports Development Limited, of which Mr Hayes holds all the shares, paves the way for detailed negotiations between the firm and the council.

It brings the council's spending on the project, which could see a new stadium and sports village built at Wycombe Air Park in Booker, to £478,000. Up to £500,000 has been made available.

Meanwhile, an expected timeline shows that a full business case for the project is due to be completed by October, with a possible planning application in January 2012.

Councillor Alex Collingwood, at the meeting as chairman of the council's Improvement and Review Commision, raised concern that the schedule did not appear to allow time for his committee to scrutinize the full business case.

Cllr Collingwood, a Conservative, and the I&R committee have publicly raised major concerns about the stadium project.

Councillor Roger Colomb, the cabinet member leading the project, raised laughter from other members by replying to Cllr Collingwood: “I'm quite confident that if you are still in that role as the chairman of the Improvement and Review Commission after the election, you'll make sure you'll get an opportunity to look at it.”

Councillor David Carroll, another Tory cabinet member, later scolded his colleagues for their laughter and defended Cllr Collingwood.

He said: “Councillor Collingwood in my book has gone about his business in a very fine way and I think people should respect him on that.”

Councillor Jean Teesdale, who has previously voiced her opposition to the project, was the only cabinet member to call for the agreement to be stopped. She said she was speaking as the ward councillor for Chiltern Rise.