Casino added to plans for football club's new stadium
Posted by Epiphany Solutions on 27 Apr 2009 at 14:04
A football club's plans for a brand new 20,000 seat stadium will also now include a casino, it has been revealed.
Southend United is to develop the new ground at Fossetts Farm in the Essex town and already has a leisure and shopping element planned for the scheme.
The leisure side will now also include a casino, after club bosses said it could provide a much-needed boost for the team's facilities, according to the Southend Evening Echo.
Club Chairman Ron Martin said an academy project which is planned would not be possible without including something like a casino as part of the scheme.
Quoted by the Echo, he said: "When we were approached by the Rank Group to include its planned casino for the town in the development, it was the obvious answer.
"Without it, the football academy we are trying to provide would not be a feasible proposition."
The leisure and retail side of the development is also set to include a Morrison's supermarket.
Full details of the changes to the planned stadium were discussed at a meeting of Southend Council, where politicians gave the thumbs-up to the plans.
But not all people were fully in support. The Echo also quoted a planning councillor, Anna Waite, are as saying she did not like the idea of a casino in the vicinity, but said if the changes were the "price we have to pay" for the football academy, then it was worth it.
The report also quoted a consultant for Rank, the company which will run the casino, saying: "This is good news. We have been looking for a suitable site for some time and this is the one which we would prefer.
"If it is now looking like all systems go at Fossetts Farm, then we are really delighted and look forward to the development going ahead as soon as possible."
Initial plans would have seen the casino appearing as an extension to an existing bingo facility in Southend, but its licence can be applied anywhere in the area if planning permission is granted.
The new stadium for Southend, currently playing in League One, has been in the pipeline since around 2006.
