Shock plans to bring Dons to Colliers Wood (From Kingston Guardian)
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Revealed: Shock plans to bring AFC Wimbledon to Colliers Wood
8:52am Thursday 17th May 2012 in Sport Exclusive By Omar Oakes
Merton Council plans to provide space for a football stadium on the site of the Savacentre in Merantun Way. Sainsburys and M&S would be relocated
Plans to bring AFC Wimbledon to Colliers Wood have been drawn up by the council alongside massive regenerations plans for the area, we can reveal.
The Wimbledon Guardian understands proposals for a football stadium on the site of the Savacentre in Merantun Way, currently home to Sainsbury’s and Marks and Spencer, are being worked on by planners.
In what is being called the "Merantun Way transformation and AFC Wimbledon master plan", it has also emerged insurance giant Aviva has been identified as a developer to build a mixed use development of 1,000 new homes along with the 20,000-seater stadium.
The revelation comes just days after separate plans emerged from a property developer to demolish Wimbledon greyhound stadium in Plough Lane and replace it with up to 800 flats and a cinema.
AFC Wimbledon – which later this month will celebrate their 10th anniversary after Wimbledon FC was ripped from Plough Lane and taken to Milton Keynes – have long held aspirations to move back to Merton from Kingston.
It was believed the council had paved the way for the football club to move to Plough Lane after it earmarked the greyhound stadium site for “sporting intensification”, while the Merantun Way plans were never talked about publically.
Plough Lane remains the preferred site for AFC Wimbledon’s homecoming, the council leader insisted, despite the revelation that planners had also identified Colliers Wood as a potential site.
Councillor Stephen Alambritis said the Savacentre had been discussed with AFC Wimbledon as a potential site but that it was on a shortlist of potential venues, including a ground-share with Tooting and Mitcham Football Club in Imperial Fields – an option sources have ruled out.
He said: “The dog track is preferred but if AFC Wimbledon wanted to look at Merantun Way, it is for them to have decisions with our planners about that.
"We want them back in Merton and yes, we have big ambitions for the Colliers Wood area.
"AFC Wimbledon has spotted that and the appeal of the SW19 brand it has.”
He added any development of the Plough Lane site would need to include an intensive sport offering.
Instead, the council has proposed alternative sites in which to relocate Sainsbury’s and M&S.
The plans are part of ambitious regenerations plans for the wider area, including turning Merantun Way into a “boulevard”, as described earlier this year by Councillor Andrew Judge, the council’s head of regeneration policy.
The council has been allocated cash from the Mayor of London which includes £1m for revamping Merantun Way with adding footpaths, cycle paths and better access to Merton Abbey Mills.
Other plans for Colliers Wood and South Wimbledon include:
- Building a mixed-use development. This would include 100 homes on the Priory Retail Park, in Christchurch Road;
- Relocating Merton Bus Garage to Morden Industrial Estate and redeveloping the existing site for 150 homes and either shops or offices;
- Led by Merton Priory Homes, building between 700 and 1200 new homes on the High Path estate;
- Creating a Merton Abbey Mills “creative quarter”. Under the plans for this, a Sainsbury’s supermarket and 250 new homes would be built.
What do you think of the plans? Leave a comment below, tweet us at @WimbledonNews or email Omar at: ooakes@london.newsquest.co.uk.
Comments(19)
JamesDaniels
says...
3:29pm Thu 17 May 12
Stevo01
says...
3:39pm Thu 17 May 12
mangad
says...
4:01pm Thu 17 May 12
And replacing a huge Sainsburys and a huge M&S with a football ground will have a negative impact on jobs. Because unless they get a new site (and who says they even want to move?) those jobs will go.
What's going to bring in more money to the local area? The existing shops or a football stadium that's only got limited use.
ajr1974
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4:12pm Thu 17 May 12
JamesDaniels
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4:25pm Thu 17 May 12
peacedon
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4:50pm Thu 17 May 12
piggeh
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5:36pm Thu 17 May 12
truthtruthtruth
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8:14pm Thu 17 May 12
Honney
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8:46pm Thu 17 May 12
Wallace13
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7:02am Fri 18 May 12
mangad wrote:This is VERY bad news for the Colliers Wood area, we should not under estimate these developments. We finally get that awful tower redeveloped (or about to be started), but with the loss of investment from the developer on the area and schools...Now the council are selling us down the river with the plan to move in a football stadium. I have lived by a stadium before in East London, it is not good for the area! Property prices go down/stay down and it is horrific for traffic and anti social behaviour on match days. Families move out area and the housing becomes rented, a sense of identity is lost.
Most ridiculous idea I've ever heard. How is plonking a football stadium in the heart of the area supposed to help regeneration? How is it supposed to boost Merton High Street in any way?
And just where on earth are they going to find the land to squeeze in a sizeable M&S and Sainsburys in all this?
I'm sure most people agree that Colliers Wood needs improvement, and I'd be in favour of moving the bus depot out of the way.
But replacing it all with a football stadium? Well that's hardly going to foster the community and make people want to move here, is it?
But this just seems to be an expensive planners wishlist, whilst doing nothing to tackle the real problems in the area such as traffi
At a recent council meeting they explained how hard it was to expand schools in the area, so where on earth will they find new spaces for M&S and Sainsburys? A lot of people depends on these stores, especially elderly people in the area, so it would be a great loss to see them moved.
Traffic is also grid locked at weekends around Colliers Wood, just imagine on match days, never mind where they would all park?
Lets hope the council see sense and relocate the stadium to the previous location and the dog track, a place that is already used to sporting events.
tjames
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2:34pm Sat 19 May 12
Mick123
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2:18pm Sun 20 May 12
markmo
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3:34pm Mon 21 May 12
JP__86
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6:54pm Mon 21 May 12
The nimby's can do one, bring the Dons home.
mangad
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9:21am Tue 22 May 12
tjames
says...
9:30am Tue 22 May 12
ByegroveRoad
says...
11:40am Thu 24 May 12
The infrastructure is already at breaking point. Long traffic jams at busy times, schools so full that Garfield is adding a fourth reception class and parents living a couple of hundred yards from Singlegate can't get a place for their kids.
Council has already done enough damage to the area, letting the black tower be built, erasing Merton Abbey with a flyover and marching pylons over Wandle Park.
MK Fan
says...
11:15pm Fri 1 Jun 12
MERTON COUNCIL sold their souls over the restrictive covenant causing Wimbledon FC to spend many years at Sellhurst, and taking the club to the point of bankruptcy...
...before they were rescued by Pete Winkelman and Milton Keynes
SHAME SHAME SHAME on you!
mangad says...
1:03pm Thu 17 May 12
And just where on earth are they going to find the land to squeeze in a sizeable M&S and Sainsburys in all this?
I'm sure most people agree that Colliers Wood needs improvement, and I'd be in favour of moving the bus depot out of the way.
But replacing it all with a football stadium? Well that's hardly going to foster the community and make people want to move here, is it?
But this just seems to be an expensive planners wishlist, whilst doing nothing to tackle the real problems in the area such as traffi