A statement issued this morning expressed Cambridge United's bitter disappointment at the City Council's decision to defer their decision about the proposed redevelopment of the Abbey Stadium. The statement reads as follows:

Cambridge United Football Club is bitterly disappointed with the decision of yesterday's City Council Planning Committee to defer its decision on the Club's redevelopment planning application.

The application was submitted in June 1999 and the Club feels that the seven months since then was ample time for Councillors to raise any questions they had regarding the application. Indeed the Council has a statutory obligation that required the application to be considered by the end of August last year but, in the spirit of co-operation and to ensure that all questions would be properly answered, the Club did not insist that Council's planning committee considered the application within the statutory timescales. The Club did, however, expect that the application would go before the planning committee by the end of October 1999.

The delay to January (which has already cost the Club 2 - 3 months) was caused by planning officers and the Club dealing with so many questions, to ensure all had been answered fully, including the "can you use less space?" question raised by a Councillor who is not a member of the planning committee.

The same Councillor formally raised this question at the Council's 'Development Forum' on the 18th August 1999 and it was answered then. Furthermore the Club and its architects subsequently reconsidered the question again and confirmed that the planning application was based on the minimum feasible space requirements. The Council's own professionals (the planning officers) agreed and were recommending approval of the application.

Gary Harwood, a Director of the Club, stated, "I am personally very disappointed and staggered that seven months after our application was submitted, five months after answering the question at the Development Forum and subsequently re-confirming that answer, the same question can be raised yet again and play a major part in causing the planning committee to 'sit on the fence' a little longer."

After 15 years of trying to re-develop the Abbey Stadium Gary Harwood confirmed that the club would not throw in the towel.

He said, " I see this as yet another minor delay but we will do our utmost to ensure that the planning application is re-presented to the planning committee at its next meeting on 9th February 2000. At that time the Club expects and demands that a decision is made without any further procrastination by planning committee members."

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