New Ground Feasibility Study

[IBA]

What's all this nonsense about Topsham as a 'suitable' site for the New SJP. I cant really think of a more inaccessible place for a football ground. There will be huge increase in the amounts of traffic at aleasy busy places such as Countess Wear roundabout. Currently its a one bus hop to the City Centre (& therefore SJP) from all over the City and from most of the surrounding towns. Getting to Topsham using public transport would be a headache for many who will opt for the convience of getting in a car.

 

[DB9]

What's all this nonsense about Topsham as a 'suitable' site for the New SJP. I cant really think of a more inaccessible place for a football ground. There will be huge increase in the amounts of traffic at aleasy busy places such as Countess Wear roundabout. Currently its a one bus hop to the City Centre (& therefore SJP) from all over the City and from most of the surrounding towns. Getting to Topsham using public transport would be a headache for many who will opt for the convience of getting in a car.

That's exactly what it is, Nonsense! Started by someone who just threw that name in the air!

 

[Greyhound]

What's all this nonsense about Topsham as a 'suitable' site for the New SJP.

Accessible by parachute from the M5.

 

[Dannyred]

What's all this nonsense about Topsham as a 'suitable' site for the New SJP. I cant really think of a more inaccessible place for a football ground. There will be huge increase in the amounts of traffic at aleasy busy places such as Countess Wear roundabout. Currently its a one bus hop to the City Centre (& therefore SJP) from all over the City and from most of the surrounding towns. Getting to Topsham using public transport would be a headache for many who will opt for the convience of getting in a car.

That was a place mentioned a few years back when the talk about a new stadium within the city border. This was also mentioned on here by someone else.

Why would getting to topsham be any different to getting to SJP where parking now is virtually impossible.

 

[DB9]

That was a place mentioned a few years back when the talk about a new stadium within the city border. This was also mentioned on here by someone else.

Why would getting to topsham be any different to getting to SJP where parking now is virtually impossible.

That "Someone else" was you. Just to remind you here it is, Look back to quote Number 28:

"it’s been rumoured for a little while about a new stadium in Topsham."

 

[Arthur Davey]

That was a place mentioned a few years back when the talk about a new stadium within the city border. This was also mentioned on here by someone else.

Why would getting to topsham be any different to getting to SJP where parking now is virtually impossible.

 

[rightwing]

What's all this nonsense about Topsham as a 'suitable' site for the New SJP. I cant really think of a more inaccessible place for a football ground. There will be huge increase in the amounts of traffic at aleasy busy places such as Countess Wear roundabout. Currently its a one bus hop to the City Centre (& therefore SJP) from all over the City and from most of the surrounding towns. Getting to Topsham using public transport would be a headache for many who will opt for the convience of getting in a car.

IBA, "Darts land" adjacent to the M5 and Topsham football ground was one of the dozen sites considered by Drivers Jonas. It was ranked No.5 out of those sites but was not seriously considered because of the reasons you state. It was also a high cost site because of its suitability for housing and always included in ECC's SHLAA. I believe planning permission was refused for a while a few years ago and I had a brief discussion with Taggy about the site being possibly available and cheaper as a result. However at that stage the SJP redevelopment was coming to fruition so this was not followed up. However I see that the site has actually now been developed for housing. There is still an area of flat land adjacent to this site but no less than three 33,000 volt power lines cross it, so it's not practical to develop. I know of no other suitable sites in Topsham.

 

[Spoonz Red E]

Making use of more of the land behind the Big Bank at some pint in the future, to instead expand the stadium...

Genuinely interested.
What ideas would you have had for it?

... need not have involved that list of things - you're presenting a false choice.

The away end and old granstand were needed (we now have them).
I don't see how you expand the big bank end backwards without a pitch move.

And how cheap exactly do you think an entirely new stadium would be?

I'm not proposing a new stadium.
I'm talking about the way SJP is developing.

 

[David Treharne]

Interesting though all this speculation is, there are several issues that also pertain in terms of forward planning for Exeter City Council. Firstly the City is running out of space within its current boundaries for an expansion of both housing and land for industrial use. If it can't either get the Boundary Commission to expand its boundaries, or get other District Councils to be more accommodating in servicing Exeter's 'needs' ( where several District Councils have just declined to sign up to the Greater Exeter scheme) it's difficult to see quite where sufficient land for a Football stadium is going to appear from. In any case until such time as the Government decides that (like Cornwall) it's going to abandon the various District Councils and form a single Unitary Authority, the County Council is going to have a major part in decision making. In any case planning is subject to processes that are so slow that unless the current Government legislation with regard to planning comes to pass, it's unlikely to bring about any radical or quick changes. As an example I cite the instance of The Stoke Hill roundabout which has been the subject of a planning decision that was made in 1999 and on which there has been no progress at all. Of course I'm in the 'lets stay at St James Park' camp, but the planning decisions made any time in the immediate future may never come to fruition anyway. Just a thought.

 

[ramone]

@ Dr Dave
Has the uni enlarged that much in the last couple of years ? As there seems to be a large amount of housing for students being put up instead of for local people who have been on waiting lists for years in the Exeter area.
As for industrial space there are numerous places in Marsh Barton / Sowton that have been empty for some time and no sign of anybody renting them anytime soon why not lower the rents for these places and get them occupied instead of them laying empty. I would like a good size unit on M/B but the high rents down there have made me rent a unit outside of the city limits (In EDDC property) and know a few other people who have left M/B for the same reasons.