Aberdeen are still making progress on their plans for a move to Kingswells and a new stadium. We wrote the other day about how Aberdeen Council officials were happy with the plan. The plan has now passed another small hurdle as Aberdeen City Council's planning committee has now thrown its weight behind the plans, voting in favour by ten votes to four. This does not mean that it is plain sailing from now on. The full City Council will now debate the plan on 21st August and final approval will have to be given by Scottish executive Ministers before Aberdeen FC can celebrate.
The Dons chief executive Keith Wyness, who attended yesterday's meeting alongside chairman Stewart Milne, said: "This is a very exciting development with huge potential to benefit Aberdeen in social and economic terms. The development is central to Scotland and Ireland's joint bid to host Euro 2008 and also creates the potential to attract other major sporting events to Aberdeen in the future." Of course, the small matter of Scotland and Ireland being awarded the EURO2008 championships will also have an effect on Aberdeen's plans. No championship - no stadium as currently planned.
There has been opposition to the plans from the start. Local Kingswells residents have organised a protest body that has lobbied local councillors against the idea of a new state of the art facility being built on their doorstep. More than 4,000 objections have been received by the city council with the majority dealing with problems with the transport infrastructure and the potential traffic impact.
