Birmingham Friends of the Earth Action Briefing Feb/Mar 99

Aston Villa's Expansion Plans Kicked Off The Park

Last month's news that Birmingham City Council would not entertain the idea of selling part of Aston Park to facilitate Aston Villa's proposed £16 million ground improvement plans is only a small battle won in the long suffering local residents' war with the football club.

Villa had wanted to extend the old Trinity Road stand onto Aston Park to boost their capacity to 50,000 seats, but the City Council have refused to approve any development that would not leave the park intact.

This refusal has resulted in the club reverting to a previous proposal which involved cantilevering the stand over the Trinity Road, thus allowing the road to remain in place instead of being diverted into the park. This would enable the 50,000 capacity target to be achieved whilst avoiding encroachment into the park.

It appears that these revised plans have received tentative backing from the City Council and, if this is the case, it is bad news for the local residents who will have to put up with the increased traffic and disturbance on match days if the expansion goes ahead. There is also the question of further redevelopment which nobody is ruling out entirely. Mark Ansell ,Villa's Finance director, is only prepared to say that they would be "unlikely".

Of course we don't want the stadium to encroach into the park, and it is to their credit that the Council are not going to allow this to happen, but neither do we want the inevitable traffic generation that an increased capacity will bring. The area is already a traffic nightmare on match days, and the club has had no transport strategy at all to deal with this. There is nothing about their track record that suggests that they would do anything but the bare minimum to address the traffic generating issue.

I have some sympathy with the club and its fans' wish for an improved stadium, and certainly the City Council's stance seems to have resulted in Villa adopting an approach more geared to concessions. But it is the club's past attitude to the local residents' that has contributed to their own problems. If they are really part of the Aston community then the local people can be excused for wondering when they will receive some of the benefits they are due from their wealthy neighbour.

It seems that there is even some understanding of the resident's situation from Aston Villa supporters if an article in the Birmingham Post by Dave Woodhall (Editor of Villa Fanzine Heroes and Villans) is anything to go by. He says, "Equally the local residents are not wholly without cause. Supporters argue that the ground was there when they moved to Aston. Maybe, but so was Aston Park which is now one-ninth of its original size".

So what happens next? If the Council go with Villa's revised plan, it still needs to be fought on the grounds of traffic generation. If it is to go ahead then it needs to be accompanied by a transport strategy that really will encourage supporters to leave their cars at home and travel by bus, train and cycle.

If you want to get involved then write to the City Council at:-

Department of Planning and Architecture
Birmingham City Council
Baskerville House
Broad Street
Birmingham
B1 2NA

Brett Rehling