Tring and Berkhamsted Gazette - January 2009

Sport Plans Could Transform Town
Plans that would see Tring transformed with top class sporting facilities and a new base for the town's secondary school have been submitted to council bosses. Proposals to create a sporting base that would house the town's clubs are being championed by Tring Sports Forum. If given the green light, playing facilities and clubs would relocate to land on Cow Lane and opposite Tesco. Tring School in Mortimer Hill would move to the new base and the secondary school's current land sold for housing including affordable homes to help finance the ambitious project, expected to cost in the region of £50million.

Sports clubs would be expected to generate their own funding through grant applications to pay for their facilities within the complex. A range of other leisure facilities such as allotments, a swimming pool and athletics track would be created and there would be an area dedicated to business units.

Sportspace, currently based on the Tring School site, would also move in. Chief Executive of the sports centre Dave Cove said: "It is obviously a big and ambitious scheme but we think it has got fantastic potential for sport in Tring and the wider area. The sports centre as it is at the moment is in need of significant refurbishment and this offers a fantastic opportunity. In principle we believe it is a very good scheme, it is very exciting."

Tring Sports Forum, which has almost 4,000 members, is made up of sports clubs in the area and headed by Councillor Mike James, who is also Mayor of Tring. He said: "With the Olympics coming up there is a real opportunity for funding. Generally the reaction from almost everybody is very positive. It ticks an awful lot of boxes for the town."

The area would feature a 10 metre wide leisure trail suitable for walkers, cyclists and horse riders with most existing hedgerows maintained to preserve wildlife habitats. Plans show 1,000 green car parking spaces, which Cllr James said would solve parking congestion currently experienced by clubs on match days. He added that the scheme would also provide much-need additional space for the growing clubs which are already bursting at the seams.

However, the plans have many hurdles to overcome before becoming a reality. It first depends on Dacorum Borough Council re-designating the Green Belt land for leisure use within the Local Plan. And the land, covering around 110 acres, is owned by Herts County Council and currently occupied by two farm tenants.

Leader of Tring Town Council John Allan said: "This is a bold, imaginative and far reaching plan, covering wide areas of Tring and potentially affecting many people. It deserves careful consideration as there are a lot of implications that need to be worked out. I look forward to seeing a fully detailed plan."

The town council will be discussing the plans during a public meeting on Monday, February 9 from 7.30pm at The Market House, 61 High Street, Tring. An initial proposal has been submitted to the borough council for consideration and a formal application is expected to put forward in June this year.

Herts County Council spokesman Pam Dajda said she could not comment on the proposal at this stage because the council has not been consulted on the plans.

To comment on the proposals contact Mike James at mikejtring@googlemail.com.