Cray Wanderers' new stadium will be eco-friendly - and built to Conference standards

CRAY WANDERERS Football Club are pleased to announce that, after nearly 40 years away from their spiritual and ancestral home, they have secured a 17-acre site upon which to build a new ground.

Club chairman Gary Hillman, speaking to www.craywands.co.uk today, said, “We have been actively looking for over ten years for a site in the Cray area that we feel creates the right infrastructure to sustain a new ground.”

Talking about the site at Sandy Lane, St Paul’s Cray, he added: “The site was chosen because it is next door to the A20 corridor road system, which has superb transport links, but is also away from residential areas. It has a high visual impact, which will increase public awareness for the Club.”



PLANS:  Cray Wanderers have today unveiled plans of their new ground at Sandy Lane
Courtesy of www.craywands.co.uk

Mr Hillman continued: “The site is already surrounded by sporting activities such as a ski slope, golf driving range and 18-hole course, bowls, as well as fishing lakes. Our initial idea is to create a Sporting Village-type complex to include a hotel.

“We are currently carrying out feasibility studies on this idea to see if it will work, but we believe that it is an ideal location, especially for tourists driving from the continent to London.”

The site is in the London Borough of Bromley and the club has already held talks with Borough officials.

“We have had meetings with the leader of the Council, the Lady Mayoress and the Planning Department and they have all been encouraging,” explained the long-serving chairman.

“The area is crying out for a hotel and the Borough officials can also see the sporting and employment benefits that the club can bring to the community."

Talking about the success of newly-built community-based grounds around the country, Mr Hillman said, “Although we have been looking for a long time it has actually helped us, as now everyone can see what benefits such grounds are to the community. For example, Dartford FC faced massive opposition at first when they acquired the Princes Park site, but their initiative has been a huge success.”



GOING HOME:  Cray Wanderers' chairman Gary Hillman (centre) signs the contract for the club's new ground, flanked by long-serving manager, Ian Jenkins (left) and vice-chairman John Woolf
Photograph courtesy of www.craywands.co.uk
 
In the meantime, Mr Hillman is asking Wands’ supporters to be patient during the interim period, adding: “We are trying to create the right infrastructure and it’s a big project which takes time to complete. We expect the feasibility studies to be done by Christmas 2009 and then the planning application takes another two years after that.

“We’ve already been told that the Mayor of London may have to get involved with the planning. We have five years left on our ground share agreement at Hayes Lane with Bromley FC and our aim is to kick off in the new ground at the start of the 2014-2015 season. The ground will be eco-friendly and will be built to at least Conference League standards.”



This must surely rank alongside Mick Slater’s noble efforts, to save the Wanderers and take them to Grassmeade back in the early 1950s, as one of the most momentous occasions in the history of the club.

Article courtesy of www.craywands.co.uk