Football club calls for stadium inquiry to be delayed six months

A preliminary hearing into the Scottish Executive’s inquiry into the Kingswells stadium plan was due to take place at a leading hotel in the city next Wednesday.

But the Executive has now agreed to a request by Aberdeen Football Club that the inquiry should be postponed until at least June to allow the club to consider its long term plans.

Keith Wyness, the chief executive of Aberdeen Football Club, said last night: "After the decision by UEFA on Euro 2008, we had to take stock of the situation before going forward. Without the time constraints of Euro 2008, we are under less pressure and can afford to review the plans and the external factors which may influence them."

He insisted that the club still believed the site at Bellfield Farm, Kingswells, was the best option for the club. But he continued: "In six months the political environment may have changed and the plans for the western peripheral route may have moved forward and, although not critical to the club’s plans, its status plays an important role in them.

"At the end of last year, the First Minister announced the creation of a new body called Events Scotland which will be involved in positioning Scotland as an attractive venue for major events. A complex of the type we are planning would be a tremendous boost for Scotland and ensure that the north-east is represented in Event Scotland’s strategy. This six month postponement gives us time to weigh up the situation carefully."

And he stressed: "We are certainly not withdrawing our planning application or shelving plans for Bellfield."

Alan Stott, the vice chairman of the Kingswells Community Council, said he hoped the move would signal an end to the proposed move to the outskirts of the city.

He said: "This must mean a complete retreat from the Kingswells site - I can’t see how it can mean anything else. A public inquiry would have just been a total waste of time and a total waste of money.

"The problem is that the club has never ever shown any willingness to investigate any alternative site. There is a perfect site for them near Charlestown, off the main Aberdeen to Dundee road."

However, Mike Dunbar, a spokesman for the Kingswells Infrastructure First Group, the body leading the campaign against the stadium plans, said the group would continue to maintain a watching brief on the club’s plans.

He said: "I don’t think we can regard this as the end of anything and we must simply be prepared to deal with any contingency which may result from this latest development.

"After all, Stewart Milne, the club’s chairman, is a serial developer and has an option on a piece of land at Kingswells. We are taking nothing for granted."

Mr Dunbar added: "I don’t agree that this is the club trying to edge themselves out with some grace. I believe they will want to exploit that land somehow."

The Executive ordered the public inquiry after Aberdeen councillors voted 23-16 in favour of the Kingswells site last August.