Public consultation begins as Luton's planning applications are validated

After both plans were submitted recently, a statement on the 2020developments website yesterday evening said: “Our two planning applications for Power Court and Newlands Park have now been validated by Luton Borough Council and the period for public consultation has now begun.”

Members of the public have been urged to pledge their support for both sites over the next month and Town chief executive Gary Sweet knows this is just the beginning of plans to build a new 17,500 all-seater stadium at Power Court.

He said: “This is where our work starts. We’re pumped up about this, we’ve got a lot of adrenaline, we’ve got a lot of momentum going here because we are so enthusiastic about our product, our scheme, our development here.

“We think they would be fantastic for the town of Luton, we think they’d be brilliant for Luton Town Football Club, we think they’d push Luton Town on, that Luton Town would change the face of Luton in its influence.

“It has happened so many times in other areas, look at the likes of Hull and Swansea and Reading.

“There’s not an awful lot happened to those towns, but they’ve actually regenerated around the resurgence of their football club.

“We can do the same here, so this is really where from our point of view, we’re so keen to push things forward.

“We don’t rest at all, we carry on, we push things forward, we drive things on, because there’s a lot to do, because we have a lot of engagement now with the council to answer their queries about anything on the planning application.

“There’s a lot of commercial partnerships that have got to be developed, which we’re doing, the people that want to trade with us, that want to come in, maybe to be tenants or share any of this land, they’re really keen to get involved, they think they’re cracking schemes too.

“So we’re very, very optimistic on the commercial side and once if we assume that the outline planning application is given approval, we move on to a detailed planning application and that’s not so much a formality, it’s not a formality.

“It’s where the nuts and bolts go, the colours of every single wall is detailed, there’s a lot of detailed work that goes into that, what do we want to go into every single room that we’re building at the football stadium and everything else, there’s quite a lot of work to go into that.”

Sweet is well aware that the Newlands Park development is just as important for the club as the new stadium plans too, adding: “It’s vital because frankly we can’t afford the Power Court development unless we have a facilitating development that’s going to give a cash contribution towards Power Court.

“We’ve concentrated and focused and really paid a lot of detail to the Newlands Park development, if anything more detail to the Newlands Park development, making sure that that development fits with Luton.

“It again gives Luton a new face. With a couple of hundred thousand cars passing every day, people will think differently of our town.

“We want that, we passionately want that, and so with the office there and the leisure and the retail, this will change the gateway of Luton.

“People will be inclined not to think so negatively about our town which we’re not too happy about, so that is important because it contributes to Power Court, it’s as important we get that away.”