The Star / Green Un's Phil Tooley recently spoke at length to Club Chairman Barrie Hubbard. The article below is reproduced from June 2nd's Green Un. There will be further pieces in June 9th and June 16th's Green Un's.

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Chesterfield Chairman Barrie Hubbard jetted off to Spain a couple of days ago, still frustrated that there's little, in the terms of tangible progress, to report on the Club's proposed re-location to a site, now cleared, between Whittington Moor and the A61.

"It's been a long winded job that seems to have gone on forever," he said, confessing, "We're in the same position today as we were last November when a big company pulled out of a possible move onto the adjacent space there, that was all lined up and set for us to receive our 10 acres or so of land free of charge."

However he revealed that all was far from lost, revealing that the Borough Council had a meeting with a new potential buyer of the 10 acres next to the proposed ground location, and that all was looking rosy after the long hiatus, "A big retail company met with the Council this week about a possible development, so in the time from November to now, we've been powerless to do anything to hurry the situation along. During that time, we've been inundated with people saying we're not going to move or have no intention of moving and after hearing loads of twaddle from me for so long, they have had something to base their views on."

He added, "But we've been advised not to put in for planning permission on our own, the site as a whole represents perhaps the biggest single thing the Planning Officer's ever had to deal with in one go, so they don't want us to go it alone and perhaps jeopardise another adjacent development, so when the new company is signed up, we can put in for our permission. We've met the company concerned but are not in a position to be able to reveal who they are, but they are a major company and they know what our hopes are, and we hope it'll not be too long before more details can be revealed."

The long, fruitless wait had potentially added costs to the development, but Hubbard is hopeful that other factors could also work in the Club's favour, "One of the penalties of the whole thing dragging on is that building costs have gone up and the funding gap may have gone up, though there are lots of areas that we'll need to negotiate when the Council sign up the new company. There's a sewer that needs to be moved that we expect to cost us a lot of money, but we're talking to the East Midlands Development Agency about whether they can help with things like that."

"We also need to talk about ground levels, it needs lifting a bit. At the moment, we're assuming we'll have to pay for that but the new deal may reduce the amount we have to pay for that, so the funding gap could be up to £4m, maybe a bit more, but also the value of Saltergate may well have gone up and that could well offset, maybe wipe out, any increases in costs. Our build partners, Gleeson's, have stated that it's not all one-way traffic with regard to costs."

The Chairman confessed it's been difficult, "It's been awful for us, we feel as though we're talking the same twaddle as we were five years ago but at least the Council and ourselves want to go to the same place, so that's a start, but it's not been easy, mainly because people don't believe us, they've been crying wolf for so long, they now don't believe anything's going to happen but once we can confirm about the company Wilson Bowden (the developers) hope to attract there, we can start to move on. We're hoping that will be sorted by the end of the second week in June and if that's the case, coupled with a few new signings before season ticket discount ends on 16^th June and everything will soon start to look positive."

And if things do start to go right sooner rather than later, moving in may not be too far away, "We're desperate to be able to take bookings for Christmas 2008 in the banqueting suite, we don't want to miss those. Gleeson's are talking of a ten month build, so if we can start in November, it'll be September or October 2008 when it's finished, so it'll not be too far into the season."

Phil Tooley

More from Barrie Hubbard in the next two Green Un's as he talks about Roy McFarland, Lee Richardson and potential new investors.