More good news for the EURO2008 bid come from Aberdeen. The Dons plans for a new 30,000 seater stadium at Kingswells have been given the nod of approval from Aberdeen planning officials. The Aberdeen plan is to invest £30m in a new complex to replace Pittodrie stadium which will also form part of Scotland's joint bid with Ireland to host EURO2008. The officials have made a recommendation to Aberdeen City Councillors to approve the international standard stadium and community sports complex, Of course, all this will be subject to detailed conditions but it is certainly good news for Aberdeen FC and the SFA/FAI bid. There had been a strong challenge against Aberdeen's plans to move to the greenfield site to establish their new home. The club knew that there was no possibility to expand their current home of Pittodrie and had identified a site on the west of the city. This led to protests from thousands of local people in the nearby suburb of Kingswells and elsewhere.
The fight is not over. This is merely round one. There is still the hurdle of getting past the council's planning committee. The planning officials recommendation is contained in a forty-thousand word report that will be discussed by the committee next week. Even if planning approval is granted by the planning committee, Aberdeen will then have to convince Scottish Executive ministers who have the final say on the outline planning proposal. There is no guarantee that this will be given. Even though the Scottish executive is supportive of the bid for EURO2008, there could still be an opportunity for protests to be submitted by Kingswells residents that could delay or even halt progress. With UEFA officials due to visit potential EURO2008 locations in September, we hope that things can be sorted out by then.
