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Saved: key athletics stadium for 2012 legacy
Elizabeth Hopkirk, Evening Standard17.10.08
A £1.2MILLION refurbishment has been agreed for a crumbling athletics stadium, in a major boost for the capital's commitment to sport after 2012.
The Queen Elizabeth Stadium in Enfield is to be given a new lease of life, following a campaign by residents, local clubs and the Evening Standard.
Last month the Standard launched a drive to press ministers and councils to improve public sports facilities and ensure a lasting Olympics legacy.
The campaign has been backed by Olympic stars and 2012 chief Lord Coe, who once competed in events at Queen Elizabeth Stadium alongside his great rival Steve Ovett.
The venue in Carterhatch Lane, inaugurated in 1953 coronation year was in such a poor state it was closed on safety grounds in May. It has become a magnet for fly-tippers, and is covered in weeds and piles of waste.Schools have had to cancel their sports days or transport pupils five miles to Lea Valley Stadium.
Now, after pressure from clubs and Enfield North MP Joan Ryan, the council has announced a deal with Enfield Town football club, which will see the club using the stadium.
The running track and art deco-style clubhouse which is Grade II-listed will be renovated. Work is expected to be completed by 2010. A spokeswoman for Enfield council said: "After considerable public consultation and meeting with the various sports clubs interested in what we can do with the stadium, the cabinet decided to spend £1.2million bringing it up to standard.
"That means we will re-do the running track and the grass area for Enfield Town FC. The stadium building, which has a beautiful curved staircase and original interior tiling, will be brought up to modern standards with really nice changing rooms, showers and physio rooms and a social area upstairs. It has real potential. Schools and all kinds of sporting organisations will be able to use the stadium, so it's a good investment for local, national and international sports training. It's a happy outcome."
Enfield Town play in the Ryman Football League Division One North. Club chairman Paul Millington said the decision by the council was "momentous".
He added: "It's fantastic news that we will have a stadium of our own from 2010 that will be the base for all sections of the club and a focus for the community as a whole.'' Ms Ryan backed the Standard's campaign, saying the stadium closure sent out the wrong message about Enfield's commitment to 2012.
Today she said the refurbishment would benefit residents, adding: "The council must honour its commitment to preserve and maintain an athletics track at QEII." Ray Gibbins, secretary of the Enfield and Haringey Athletics Club, which moved from the stadium to Lea Valley last year, said young people had been losing interest in sport because there were no longer any local facilities.However, some clubs are cautious about the venue plan, fearing athletics could be treated as the poor relation. Enfield Town's original proposal had been to replace the track with five-a-side pitches. Richard Gillman, commercial and marketing manager of rival club Enfield (1893) FC, which was part of a consortium that made a failed bid for the site, questioned whether the winning proposal would be financially viable.
Enfield Town was set up in 2001 after a "supporters' revolution" at Enfield FC. They currently play at Goldsdown Road in the east of the borough.
Reader views (5)
There is no way that Enfield Town should have been granted use of this stadium as they are nothing more than a renegade club officered and supported by a bunch of turncoats and traitors.
They were only formed in the first place because of the fact that due to the mis-management and greed of the then chairman of the original Enfield FC, the true football club of Enfield, they had lost their ground and were struggling in the league and those who now follow Enfield Town couldn't handle following a team that would struggle.
This is in my view, a real stab in the back for Enfield (1893) FC and in the long run it will do nothing for Athletics in particular and sport in general in the borough.
- Eric, Cuffley, Herts., UK.
This article about the QE Stadium in Enfield is really interesting with the context of the controversy about the future of the Olympic Stadium. Surely this points the way forward for refocusing the Olympic legacy on renovating/developing local tracks/stadia across London, rather than it starting and finishing with the Straford site.
The GLA/LDA/Olympic Authority could group the boroughs together sub-regionally and ensure that each grouping has at least one top class athletics facility. In Newham this would mean the redevelopment of the McMillan Stadium in to a top class local stadium. Football clubs, like Enfield Town, could be accommodated as long as it did not distract from the priority, which is track and field.
This compromise would be acceptable in Lausanne. It would also ensure that the Olympic stadium could become a 60,000 seat football venue post 2012. In reality, this is the only viable option for the future of the stadium. Lord Coe and Tessa Jowell, new thinking is needed and this is a solution that satisfies everyone!
- Bill Coomber, London, UK
Initially it all appears to be a nice idea, but when you mix football with track & field
athletics you will find that throwers will not be able to train there as the in-field will be devoted to the soccer pitch, and hammers make big holes in the grass. Even in summer I doubt if the in-field will be marked out properly for all the throwing events,(with adequate safety cages) and if that is the case, no complete athletics meetings can be held at the site. In other words, the track will become, just a facilty for training purposes for the odd few runners. The facilities at Lee Valley are more than adequate for the Boroughs committment to Athletics, for now and the future, so why not give the stadium completely to football and save the cost of another track ? Perhaps give the schools better transport facility to get to Lee valley, if thats whats needed. Lee Valley has plenty of parking and incredibly good indoor facilities as well.
- Mike Bennett, Barnet, UK
What chicken-feed it takes to get a good result for grass roots improvements like this. If the Olympics resulted in a thousand such good results it would justify the effort: just think what the cost of the £300m aquatic centre could give Londoners if spent in a sane, down-to-earth way like this.
- Mdj, Leyton, London, UK.
Great to see that Joanny-come-lately has claimed credit yet again for someone else's hard work. I remember Enfield Council talking about this 3 years ago. Joan Ryan really does have an eye for a bandwagon when she sees one.
Well done Enfield Borough Council.
- Tom Black, Enfield, England
