APPENDIX 15
Memorandum submitted by the London Borough
of Richmond upon Thames
ATHLETICS AT TWICKENHAM
The Council has not formally considered the
issue of the RFU's Twickenham Stadium becoming a major athletics
venue since there is no firm proposal. However, the Secretary
of State has discussed the possibility with the Leader of the
Council. There has also been discussion with the RFU at the regular
high level Council/RFU meeting. National press coverage has generated
a good deal of local interest and there is growing concern in
the community. In essence the Council's objective would be to
find a way forward which works for both the local community and
athletics generally. However, for the Council the community comes
first. Any proposals would have to be of benefit to the local
community and there would have to be sufficient time for local
people to be consulted and involved. Proposals would have to address
the impact on the community of crowd movements, noise etc. Critically
they would have to include major improvement in transport links
and infrastructure in the Twickenham area, ideally an extension
of the tube network. If Terminal 5 proceeds it would be accompanied
by major transport infrastructure demands. The response to these
would need to take into account any development for athletics
at Twickenham. The transport infrastructure would require significant
financial investment, a point the Leader of the Council has emphasised
consistently in his discussions with the Secretary of State, the
RFU and in statements to the press.
The timing of the planning process on such a
major scheme is difficult to forecast at this preliminary stage.
However, the general sequence of activities would be along the
following lines:
— Extensive pre-application discussions
with Council officers involving other important players, eg public
transport representatives, RFU, other land users involved, London
Borough Hounslow etc.
— Pre-application public meeting(s):
to keep the public informed and involved from an early stage.
— Planning application submitted taking
account of the matters arising in pre-application discussions
and public meetings. More than one application may be needed if
other sites are involved for warm-up tracks etc.
— Statutory and non-statutory consultations
take place involving detailed assessment of environmental impact
of proposals (a formal Environmental Impact Assessment may be
required). Most of these consultations and statutory adverts have
a period of 21 or 28 days. However, on a scheme of this scale
this is largely academic because the Council could not determine
the proposals without feedback from some of these consultees.
Also, it is rare for there to be such consultations without them
producing the need for revisions or clarifications which in turn
require further consultations/revisions.
— Ultimately, when all consultations/revisions
are complete the application(s) are determined at the Development
Control Sub-Committee or possibly the full Environment Committee
recognising the significance of the proposal.
— If the application is refused an
appeal is available and this could mean a major public inquiry
before a final decision was issued.
— "Call-in" by Secretary
of State (or Mayor, depending on when application is submitted
in relation to setting up GLA) is possible given the regional
and national importance. This would add a further stage onto the
above sequence probably ending in a public inquiry and final decision
by the Secretary of State or Mayor. However, it is worth noting
that the previous replacement stands around the RFU were dealt
with by the Council without being "called-in".
The Council is also involved as a "regulator"
in dealing with the Building Regulations for new buildings (under
the Building Act 1984) and in considering any new stand under
the Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975. These processes are a little
more predictable than the planning side but for a scheme of this
size the usual statutory periods for consideration (five weeks
for Building Regulations and 35 days for Safety of Sports Grounds)
are rather academic and longer periods would obviously be needed.
Once the building is started the RFU have indicated
it would take place over two summer periods. The discussion with
the RFU indicated a planning application could be submitted by
the end of 2000, with a best estimate of planning approval by
the end of 2001. This would point to building in summer 2002 and
2003 with completion in 2003 but is clearly highly speculative
at this stage.
January 2000
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