A story on the Birmingham Post website strongly suggests that plans for the closure of Hall Green Stadium are set for 2018.
Quoting site owners Euro Property Investment, the article confirms the submission of an outline plan to build a housing estate on the site, and appears to be working to a closure date in two years time which coincides with a possible break in the lease.
Promoter Clive Feltham, who is unable to oppose planning permission within the terms of his lease agreement at the stadium, believes the Hall Green situation is far from done and dusted.
He said: “I am not surprised that the owners are applying for planning permission though we weren’t aware that it had been lodged until yesterday. Given my personal connection with the stadium and staff over many years, I was very disappointed to hear it.
“We can only be served notice to quit if planning permission is granted and that is far from certain, given all the possibilities. In the first instance, there is no doubt that Hall Green, unlike Oxford, is a profitable business. It is also a very different situation to Wimbledon too. Even if the planners accept the idea of houses, there could be all sorts of restrictions that would not make it commercially viable, with the loss of land for extra roads, as one example.”
With local residents and greyhound supporters likely to challenge the high intensity planned development, Feltham does not accept that closure is inevitable.
