Apr 20 - GSD: Common Sense Should Have Prevailed Earlier On Stadium
The GSD says it welcomes the announcement that the national football stadium will be located at the site of the Victoria Stadium but has said that “common sense should have prevailed much earlier.”
A statement continued: “During the last four years the GSD has consistently maintained that the Victoria Stadium was the best site for a national stadium and that both the Europa Point and Lathbury Barracks sites were either wholly inappropriate or simply not feasible. We fought a General Election on that basis and we should not lose sight of the fact that for its part, the Government just as consistently argued that the Victoria Stadium site was too limited and restricted in both size and capacity because of proximity to the airport, petrol station, roads, Bayside School and residential areas, to develop into a suitable stadium. In simple terms the Government said it was not possible.
“Valuable time has been lost by initial poor judgment on the part of the Government in refusing to accept that the Victoria Stadium was the obvious site for this project. In the meantime, hundreds of football supporters have had to travel to Faro for national games when the project could have been completed earlier, if common sense had prevailed.
“Therefore, while we welcome the announcement, this is a monumental U-turn by the Government and the issue has not been handled well.
“The Opposition also welcomes the announcement that facilities will be developed for other sports with the proceeds of sale of the Victoria site. It is important that other sports such as Rugby, Cricket and Athletics amongst them, do not lose out or suffer disruption. It is also important that access by schools is not lost whilst alternative facilities are made available. In addition, as we have pointed out in the past, the building of a National Stadium will not deal with the most pressing problem affecting grass roots football today and that is the lack of training pitches. We are glad to see that it is the intention of the Government to deal with this issue at the Lathbury Barracks site. The deadline of 2019 for new facilities to coincide with the Island Games at a cost of £16.5 million is an ambitious one but one which we welcome. In the meantime, the Opposition will continue to monitor the situation carefully, as it has over the last four years.”
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