Those of you with long memories will remember that two years ago the owners of the Abbey Stadium, where Cambridge United play, came to talk to Milton PC about a “community stadium” on land between the A10 and the land fill site.

This is Green Belt land and subsequently the owners tried to get the land re-zoned in the Local Development Framework for a “Development Sports Village with Football Centre of Excellence/Academy as well facilities for other sports”. They’re still waiting to see whether they were successful.

Now, with a large car park being built by the County Council right next door (the replacement for the Cowley Road P&R site), developers are back with a new proposal for a community stadium at the same location, presumably with the same thought in mind of moving Cambridge United there (and possibly Cambridge City too, who I understand also have to find a new home soon). And now they’ve got themselves a car park of course, built for them by the county council.

If you live on the west side of the village or in Butt Lane this is a development which may concern you somewhat. On the other hand if you’re a publican in Milton you’re probably rubbing your hands together with joy.

There are some other potential plus points. We already have the country park to our east and the golf course to the north. Soon (allegedly) we’ll have the rowing lake filling in all the rest of the land to the east and north of us. Having a sports village to the west of us would mean we were protected from further development in all directions except the north west.

Anyway the developers are coming to the parish council meeting on Monday night to discuss their proposals. You might want to come along. The meeting starts at 7pm at the Bowls Pavilion on Coles Road and it’s the first item on
the agenda.