Two Cheers for Rovers Stadium

Written by Chris Millman Tuesday, 14 June 2011

Bristol Green Party has given a guarded welcome to proposals for a new 20,000 seat football stadium to be built on the UWE Frenchay campus.

 

Party spokesperson Daniella Radice said:

"From an environmental point of view, the stadium would appear to have much to recommend it.  Unlike most stadia, it is designed to be unobtrusive, and there is good access by both rail and rapid transport.  If the stadium is to be shared with the Rugby Club that means it will be in use every weekend, with UWE students benefiting from imaginative use of the facilities on weekdays.  This is much better than having something which just sits there and is only in use once a fortnight.”

The most obvious drawback is that the development is to be financed in part by the planned sale of the existing Memorial Stadium to Sainburys. 

"We could never approve of the building of yet another supermarket, which will further damage the viability of businesses on Gloucester Road,” said Daniella, a local resident.  
“People who live around the Memorial Stadium deserve better, after all they have had to put up with.  What the area needs is a new primary school, not another supermarket!  I would like to see a mixed development including a school and some housing with shared open space to double as the school playing field.”

Having produced such a promising blueprint, Bristol Green Party would urge the Football Club and the University of the West of England to make sustainability a key feature of the new stadium.  In recent years, Ipswich, Middlesbrough and Manchester City have made serious efforts to reduce the carbon impact of their operations, but it is non-league Dartford who are reputed to have the most sustainable stadium in the country.  

Daniella continued:
"The UWE stadium won't be the most imposing in the country, but if it was truly sustainable that might give the supporters something else to be proud of.  If it had photovoltaic cells in the roof, it could generate it’s own energy.  We might also get more Greens following the Blues.”


Contact: Chris Millman, Bristol Green Party Press Officer
Tel: 0117 968 8845; Mob: 07837 665 834; Email: chris.millman (at) phonecoop.coop