The Council Response

The Council spokesman was asked by BBC H&W for his reaction to Graham Turner's comments.

"It is pleasing to hear the football club and the Richardsons thinking about the
future of the ground. The council is looking at a long-term vision for this whole
100 acre site of which the football club is an important part.

"Experience of large scale redevelopement of this nature elsewhere in the country
shows that it is not really the best practice to try and bring things forward in
a piecemeal fashion. Sometimes if you bring developements forward in one part of
the site you can prejudice developements on the other part of the site.

"So we might take the view that an application arising now might be a little bit
premature because we do really need to see the adopted UDP in place before we can
look at the whole site in its entirity.

"What the UDP has done is to incorporate the master planning proposals which
Advantage West Midlands and the Council developed over the past year or so.
Essentially there is a commitment to retaining the football ground in the city
centre along Edgar Street but the master plan itself did suggest a slight
relocation from its exsisting position."

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