A CAMPAIGN to prevent a new football stadium from being built in Eastrop has been dealt a blow after officers confirmed the council is not bound by a previous decision to protect the site.

As previously reported by The Gazette, the borough council is currently carrying out a fresh review into available sites which could be used by Basingstoke Town Football Club for a new 5,124-capacity stadium.

The club wants to build a new £10million stadium at the Old Common, in Eastrop, but needs the council to agree to a land transfer.

But the borough council told the club that it couldn’t support its plans to build a new stadium on the council-owned land in Old Common Road until the autumn after it came to light that a public consultation on the plans could be “vulnerable to legal action” as alternative sites were not included.

Residents and Eastrop councillors thought they had found a breakthrough when they found a decision made by the council’s land and property sub-committee from February 1979, which said that any land left following the construction of the Hilton Hotel should be left undeveloped.

But the council’s decision-making Cabinet will be told that the council is not bound by that decision at a meeting tomorrow evening.

Legal advice was sought by the council and in a report for the Cabinet meeting, it says: “The 1979 report referred to shows that there was previous recognition by the council that the land between the hotel development and the school was to remain undeveloped and of open character.”

The report says that a decision was made by the Cabinet in 2012 to endorse the principal of using the land for a new stadium.

It added: “Prior to this decision extensive work had been carried out to establish if there were any legal restrictions on this land that would prevent it being used in this way.

“Having reconsidered the use to which the land will be put, the council is not bound by the 1979 decision.”

Eastrop councillor Stuart Parker told The Gazette he was “disappointed” with the decision, adding: “I am disappointed that they appear to have not chosen to recognise it in view of the specific wordings.

“To my mind there was a clear intention to offer that area of open space protection.”

The council’s Cabinet member for planning and infrastructure, Councillor Mark Ruffell, said: “The council is keen to protect its green spaces in the borough from future development.

“If adopted by full council in October, the proposed criteria will mean a large number of council owned sites can be protected, with the prospect of further green spaces being added in the future, once other sites are assessed and when it is clear if any site is appropriate as a potential location for a stadium to accommodate Basingstoke Town Football Club.”