November 8, 2019 1.00 pm This story is over 52 months old

Former Louth football stadium homes plan gets approved

A tie over the future of sports facilities is still to be scheduled
Councillors had previously asked for the former stadium at Park Avenue to be replaced. Photo: Google.

Developers are celebrating a goal after councillors approved a 54-home plan on the former Louth Town Football Club site.

However, the match over GBM’s attempts to ditch a replacement sports facility has yet to be fought.

The development will be built on the former Park Avenue stadium which has outline permission for 98 homes.

Objections included flooding concerns, highways access, ground contamination and archaeology concerns.

Louth Town Council unanimously objected to the plans for failing to comply with a condition requiring GBM to provide replacement facilities.

They said £49,000 offered towards facilities on London Road was “not sufficient”.

Louth Town Councillor Sue Crewe said: “The football team wish to return to Louth. They really would like to get all the teams back into Louth as they originally were.

“It’s really important to the young people of our town and the older footballers that they get to play their sport in town.”

ELDC Councillor Ros Jackson told members: “A like-for-like replacement is needed… there are no submitted plans that would satisfy this condition.

“Twice already this condition has been tested in this committee and twice the committee has upheld that condition as valid.”

Sport England also objected.

Amended plans for how the housing would be laid out.

GBM has applied separately to have the sports facility condition removed, but this was not decided at Thursday’s committee.

In its application it says facilities were “no longer needed” because the team was no longer playing at a level to justify the requirement.

Agent Andrew Clover said the condition would still stand until the other application was decided on – predicted to be in December or January.

He said: “Overall the design and layout of the site and dwellings are considered acceptable.

“The development will be a significant benefit for young families and first time buyers.”

He said developers were in “advanced talks” to provide a care home in the North East corner of the site.

Since outline approval in January 2016, two attempts to vary the condition have been refused by ELDC.

Two applications to provide facilities on Fairfield Industrial Estate and London Road Athletics Club have both been approved.

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