Decision time for sports village

A report to be discussed at a special meeting of Wigan Planning Committee on Friday indicates that conditional outline approval can be given to the project sites at Marshall Street, Grasmere Street, Holden Road and Howe Bridge.

The scheme involves the replacement of Wigan and Leigh College; a 10,000 capacity stadium for Leigh Centurions and Leigh RMI; state-of-the-art Athletics facilities; pitches and clubhouse for Leigh East ARL; housing; offices; leisure facilities and retail outlets on the Marshall Street site.

Other parts of the project would see retail development built on the Leigh East ground in Grasmere Street; housing on the Leigh Harriers site on Holden Road and additional soccer and rugby pitches close to Howe Bridge Sports Centre.

But, the report warns, unless all elements are given planning permission, the central scheme at Marshall Street would be 'unviable'.

Funding for the multi-million pound Sports Village is provided from two main sources - selling the land currently occupied by all the scheme's partners and from a variety of grants.

The developers, Greenbank Partnerships Ltd, say that the project will provide over 2000 full time and part-time jobs once completed.

At tomorrow's meeting, councillors will consider the plans in the light of 285 letters of objection and 10,988 and two petitions in support.

Letters of objection have come from individuals as well as organisations such as Campaign for Planning Sanity; The Ramblers' Association and the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England. Some of those voicing their support for the plan are the Rugby Football League; Wigan Borough Chamber of Commerce; Bedford High School; Westleigh High School and Leigh Soroptimists Club.

Councillors on the Planning Committee could accept the recommendations of their officers or reject them.

Granting of outline permission tomorrow will trigger an intensive re-consultation involving all interested parties so that the finer points can be thrashed out before a full application is submitted.

What's included

Marshall Street

College campus

10,000-seater stadium

Athletics track and ancillary facilities

Pitches and club for Leigh East

Fitness club with pool

Three-screen cinema

Sports hall

Conference and business centre

Themed retail and housing

Two office buildings

Hotel

Grasmere Street

Retail development and car parking.

Leigh Harriers

44 houses

Howe Bridge

Provision of six soccer/rugby pitches

What it all costs

Sporting and community facilities at Marshall Street - £43.1m

Sale of Leigh Harriers - £1.6m approx

Housing and student accommodation at Marshall Street - £1.9m

Commercial facilities at Marshall Street - £8m approx

Retail development at Leigh East - £8.4m

Business units and hotel at Marshall Street - £3.5m

Funding gap of £19.7m to be bridged by grant aid.

Scheme's environmental impacts

Noise

The Environmental Impact Assessment recommends planning conditions to control hours of working and also boundary noise level limits.

Road noise - An increase of 3dB in noise level is regarded as an appropriate threshold whereby the change in noise environment would be noticable to a casual observer. This threshold will not be exceeded.

Stadium noise - Live music, crowd noise and public address noise have all been considered. The proposal can be designed, constructed and operated to ensure the acoustic impact is minimised.

Landscape

Comprehensive landscape treatment to improve variety and quality of habitats.

Create additional wet and marginal grassland, together with a new pond.

Low-level lighting

Screen planting

Landscaped car parking

Transport

Busiest periods likely to be at weekends.

Surrounding road network will become overloaded within the next 15 years whether the development proceeds or not.

Combination of road improvements to take increased flow at critical junctions; improved public transport to the sites and promotion of walking and cycling schemes.

Recommended residents-only parking scheme in neighbouring streets.