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HowZat? is a campaign group formed by local residents from Bishopston and Ashley Down. The objective of the group is to challenge and revise the stadium expansion plans put forward by Gloucestershire County Cricket Club (GCCC).
On 23 June the GCCC submitted their revised plans for development of the Cricket Ground. These include:
- 7,500 permanent seats (scaled back from 18,500 in the previous 2009 application) – mainly on the College side of the ground
- Temporary seating to be used on the Kennington Avenue side for big matches to increase capacity to 17,500 (no permanent seating on this side for the foreseeable future)
- The building of the extended Pavilion, Media Centre and 400 place Conference Centre at the Lancashire Road end of the ground
- All the work above would be financed by a block of 150 residential (not student ) flats to be built by Linden Homes at the Ashley Down end of the ground.
- The flats would be a mixture of 1, 2 and 3 bedroom units and would rise to between 4 and 7 storeys high (maximum height about 21.2 metres – almost 70 feet – over half as high again as the current wavy Jessop stand!)
- The 147 flats would have basement parking for only 111 cars.
HowZat? has always maintained that the previous plans approved in 2010 for an 18,500 permanent seat stadium was both too large for the congested urban site, and unnecessary in terms of preserving the GCCC’s One Day International status. We therefore welcome the scaling back of the stadium. However we still have significant concerns about the new plans!
We are keen to hear the views of local residents on the new proposals. Please contact us at howzatgccc@googlemail.com.
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