11:20am Saturday 20th March 2010
By Dave Peters
FANS of Wanderers and Wasps have been promised they will be consulted about their teams’ plans to share a new community stadium away from Adams Park.
The clubs and the council this week sealed a collaboration agreement at which they agreed to work together to investigate the potential for a joint new community stadium and sporting village for Wycombe.
The three parties have spent at least two years working behind the scenes on the plan and went public with their first press conference this week after the Bucks Free Press called on them to break their silence.
The clubs and the council have earmarked £250,000 each on a feasibility study to investigate the plans further with sites at Booker Air Park and Abbey Barn Lane the front-runners.
They have given themselves 15 months to work on it with a joint Wanderers, Wasps and council statement saying: “The target date for a review as to whether to proceed or not is June 2011.”
And they say supporters and residents will be consulted from now on.
Wycombe District Council chief executive Karen Satterford said: “There will be very full public consulation and with their input we will have a stronger set of proposals.”
Steve Hayes, owner of Wanderers and Wasps, reiterated the promise of transparency and fan involvement.
He said: “All of those supporters will be spoken to, every single one because it is important do so. Everyone will have an opportunity to understand what is going on and have their say.”
And he is expecting a favourable response despite some critcism from supporters on websites and through the letters pages of the Free Press.
He said: “Since it came out in the newspaper neither club has had one letter from any supporter complaining about it.
“Yes there are people who write anonymously on websites or write to newspapers, but not one person has written to the clubs and that seems a bit strange.”
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