OXVOX chairman Paul Peros discusses the latest on Oxford United’s stadium project.

OVER the past few weeks, we have been writing articles in this section and there has been a constant thread running through most of it: the plans for a new stadium at The Triangle near Kidlington.

This is because the future of our club, our community, is at stake. A once in a lifetime opportunity has arisen for not only the tens of thousands of supporters of the club but for the residents of Kidlington and all of Oxfordshire.

As with all large projects, there have been questions and concerns, and the club has been working hard to answer those.

READ ALSO: Kidlington locals voice support for stadium amid legal challenge

On the whole, I have been really proud of the way the club and its supporters have coped, and there is a real feeling that once this project reaches the planning stage, we will be able to show the full extent of what will be a world-class community facility.

While this club, and more importantly the community and people around it, remain massively important to tens of thousands of us across the county and further, we understand that those not interested in football have more basic questions about how the new stadium will impact them.

Issues like traffic and parking are of course vital, and the club has published a great deal of information on the innovative solutions to these problems.

They have highlighted the massive green gain by moving the stadium from being the second furthest in the league from a train station to the second closest.

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We as fans have also focused on a positive campaign to highlight how a community stadium would offer infrastructure, facilities for the young and old of Kidlington, not to mention jobs, a boost for local business and sports clubs and an injection of over £100 million pounds into our local economy.

It is therefore massively disappointing to read that a group, who appear to oppose all development in the North Oxfordshire area, have decided to use legal threats to delay a land deal with the council.

A deal that was recommended to be approved by the cabinet over six months ago but delayed to answer exactly the questions now being asked all over again.

I suppose we should be thankful that this time it appears they are not spending thousands of pounds of parish money in an attempt to slow the proper course of this process, but it seems extremely worrying that legal threats are being used to stop this process reaching planning.

Planning is where proper consultation will continue, where full plans will be seen by everyone involved and will be evaluated by experienced planning experts.

It is perhaps telling that this small group is so keen to subvert this process and keep it away from planning, where all the benefits will be laid out and a lot of the fears and scare stories proven unfounded.

Kidlington residents deserve the chance to see and judge for themselves. This county deserves better. It is time for a more reasoned debate. It is time for the proper process to be allowed to work.

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