New stadium saga continues to divide opinion.

(From Bristol Evening Post)

ALDERMAN Spud Murphy's suggestion of a shared City and Rovers stadium on Severnside sounds brilliant, but there are three reasons it will never happen.

Severnside has long been designated for development, so where is the scope for the usual backroom wheeler-dealing, with no records kept, so beloved of Bristol's councillors and planners? This is not my view, but that of the Local Government Ombudsman looking into complaints over how the Memorial Stadium redevelopment plan was mishandled by the council.

Because Severnside is already designated for development, the "money people" can't buy up the land at agricultural prices and make a financial killing in land value alone once they have secured planning approval. The project would thus be even more financially unviable than the current "green belt" Ashton Vale stadium proposal.

Yet more millions of pounds of local council subsidies would have to be poured in amidst the forthcoming "cuts" in public services to make the project work. Again, this is not my view but actually contained in the original Ashton Vale stadium report put before councillors by planning officers.

In the application the developers actually wanted GBP49 million of otherwise inappropriate "enabling developments" to make the stadium scheme viable. Council planning officers reckoned this was somewhat of an …