 Oldham feel redevelopment is crucial to the future of the club |
Oldham Athletic have been dealt a blow after the borough council's planning committee rejected their proposals to redevelop their Boundary Park stadium. Councillors unanimously accepted plans to upgrade the Broadway Stand.
But they then voted against granting outline planning permission for the rest of the stadium by a margin of seven votes to four.
"This diabolical decision beggars belief," Latics chief executive Alan Hardy told his club's website.
 | 606: DEBATE |
"To say a cloud hangs over Boundary Park is not an understatement. "This is the culmination of four years of hard work, with our planners working hand in hand with the council's over the last 12 months. We were led to believe we'd done things right.
"The development we'd planned would help to take both the football club and the town foward, but it's clear Oldham Council don't want that.
"They have seen the death of Watersheddings, and now they could see the death of Boundary Park."
Watersheddings was the home until 1997 of Oldham Roughyeds rugby league club, who now groundshare at Boundary Park.
| The committee's decision now puts the club's future in serious doubt Oldham director Barry Owen |
The council's reasons for rejecting planning permission were doubts over figures in a traffic survey, as well as the large scale of the development and the loss of open space and amenities. Opened in 1904, Boundary Park currently has a capacity of 13,264.
Club director Barry Owen added: "As the fans' representative on the board, I am ashamed to be a resident of the town in whcih I was born.
"The committee's decision now puts the club's future in serious doubt."
Oldham defender Reuben Hazell has signed a new contract keeping him at Boundary Park until the summer of 2009. Hazell, 28, has made eight first-team appearances since joining on a month-to-month contract in September.
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