A REPORT detailing concerns of members of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s scrutiny committee about a new stadium agreement between the borough council and Basingstoke Town Football Club will be discussed tonight.

Councillors on the Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s cabinet gave the green light to a legal agreement with the club for the sale of land needed to build a new 5,124-capacity stadium on Basingstoke Old Common, in Eastrop, and for the council’s 29 per cent share of the club’s current stadium at The Camrose, in June.

But Labour councillors Laura James, Mark Taylor and Gary Watts, Liberal Democrat members Gavin James and Stuart Parker, and Independent councillor Martin Biermann asked the borough council’s scrutiny committee to look at the deal again.

And at the second half of the original meeting, which was adjourned on July 9, all 13 members of the scrutiny committee voted to send a report detailing their concerns, which included issues with the legal agreement, the promotion of the Camrose site for retail development, and a call for land at the Leisure Park to be reconsidered, to the borough council’s decision-making cabinet.

The report will be considered by the cabinet tonight, and members can then decide whether to go ahead with the decision or carry out more work on the project.

Councillor Paul Harvey, Labour councillor for Norden, told the scrutiny meeting: “We have identified tonight that there is concern over the promotion of The Camrose for a retail park site against this council’s existing retail study assessment, and the impact for our town centre.”

Eastrop and Liberal Democrat member Cllr Stuart Parker added: “We can take some of the work already done and move from one site to another site if the current Conservative administration actually had any desire to think about the local community, and what the loss of green open space would do to them.”

David Knight, secretary at Basingstoke Town FC, told The Gazette: “We want the town to have a new stadium and we don’t want it to cost the council any money, which is the plan at the moment. We will continue to work with the council to please everybody.”