Residents Voice Fears

By: Rob Sedgwick
Date: 01/05/2002

GREAT COATES residents have been voicing their concerns about the proposed site of the Mariner's new stadium on the outskirts of their village.

The NELC enquiry, listening to any objections to the planned new £14m stadium, is being held at Cleethorpes Town Hall, and includes visits to the site near the A1136 where Town are planning to build their new ground.

Residents expressed fears which made them oppose the site, amongst them police helicopters on match days, and unruly fans urinating in the street.

Great Coates Civic Society representative Graham Powell, in a presentation to the enquiry, addressed the fears of many local residents: "The stadium would have an appalling impact on the village of Great Coates because of noise, disturbance and the visual impact." He also felt that a club with an average gate of 6,000 did not need a 21,000 seater stadium in their village

Further safety fears were raised with the proximity of the site to chemical factories on the Humber Bank.

North East Lincolnshire Council's barrister Simon Bird told the inquiry that the council had already concluded Great Coates was the most appropriate site for the stadium. He then told the objectors that they would have to show that there were fundamental problems with the Great Coates site, and also demonstrate that there was another suitable location within the county, something which two independent enquiries have already concluded there was not.

Mr Powell argued there were vacant plots in Freeman Street, Grimsby, which would be more appropriate for the retail development and that a brown field site in Macaulay Lane within walking distance of Grimsby's town centre was now the subject of litigation after the developer pulled out, something which had caused the site to be discounted in the previous enquires.

The enquiry continues.

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