THE chief executive of the Ageas Bowl has spoken on plans to completely redevelop land around the stadium.

David Mann says the scheme, which included 183 new homes, an assisted living facility and a hotel, will "enhance the operational nature".

A public consultation has been launched.

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Mr Mann said: "Today is the start of a consultation process, a public consultation for plans that we've been developing for about two years now to redevelop the venue, to transform the venue actually and completely enhance the spectator the fan experience.

"What we're looking to do is use a proposed new residential development and the commercial revenue from that to fund the redevelopment of the venue, including doubling the car parking space, improving the spectator access to the venue, improving the actual stadium itself.

"So potentially increasing the size of the berms so we can increase capacity, spending money on the pavilion, which which is 20 years old, it needs completely redeveloping, and enhancing the golf course as well, the Boundary Lakes golf course so there will be changes to Boundary Lakes as part of that.

"So all of these changes will enhance the operational nature of the site on match days, so instead of having one car park right in the middle of the site, we'll have two car parks at the perimeter of the site and two access points which should enormously enhance access and egress on match days, which have been an issue over the years."

As well as a new estate, comprising 103 houses and 80 apartments, the scheme looks to construct a new hotel to "compliment" the existing Hilton. It would offer 135 double bedrooms.

To the southwest, an independent living tower with 71 ensuite units is proposed.

Mr Mann continued: "We'll also be separating pedestrian access, creating a new landing zone for pedestrians when they access the venue from either the East or the West. So the whole experience on match day should be improved outside the ground as you get in and out of the ground, but also once you're in, the facility should be that much better as well. And on non-match days, the golf experience, the golf course is going to be improved, we're developing new holes on land that we that we acquired a few years ago.

"Those should be ready in a couple of years time, we'll always have 18 holes open for the members, so there won't be any disruption to the members, but once we finish the development, the course is going to be transformed.

"And also the clubhouse, which is, at the moment, inside the hotel, will be up on Moorhill Road, so there'll be a completely new clubhouse as part of this, which will again deconflict traffic that members at the moment park in the hotel car park, and that can cause issues on matchdays, it can cause issues on big event days. That won't be an issue going forward. So all of this is really exciting. It helps us to improve customer experience, but what it also does is it should raise enough revenue to help us to pay down a significant amount of debt.

"And the venue has a lot of debt that it's acquired over the years to develop it to the stage we're at now. It's always been our plan to pay that down. This will enable us to accelerate the repayments of that debt so it should underpin the financial sustainability of the business, help us to protect jobs, we've got over 300 people employed here, it will give more job security. The venue has a massive impact on the local economy, the economic impacts of the venue I think we had estimated at about £50 million a year by an independent report ten years or so ago.

"So it's a massive contributor to the local economy. We want to make sure that that's protected for years to come. The legacy of the venue is protected, the jobs for local suppliers are protected, as well as our own jobs and also the legacy of Hampshire Cricket.

"When when Rod Bransgrove saved Hampshire Cricket 20 years ago, when it was about to go out of business, he protected a legacy that's been that's probably over 150 years worth of legacy. And we want to make sure that that's we put the business on a sound footing so that it is protected for another 150 years or more.

"So the process is we've been developing these plans with a lot of professional consultants so we've got some real expertise helping us with this. It's a landscape led development, it's a sustainable development, so all of the things that you'd expect are being considered as part of the process.

"We're at the stage now where we're out to public consultation. So we've been consulting with professional advisors and independent experts to get the process to get the project to where it is now. Now's the time for the public to have their say and we can take into consideration, take into account any feedback that we get from the public as part of this and modify the plans accordingly if necessary. So the next, this is all part of a pre-application process ahead of us hopefully submitting a formal planning application in due course."