THE main company behind plans to build a new Woking FC stadium with more than 1,000 adjacent flats is working on an appeal against the rejection of the scheme by the borough council planning committee.

Wayne Gold, the principal director of GolDev Woking, told the News & Mail that he has reached an amicable agreement with Dukelease Properties that they would no longer be involved in the scheme.

Mr Gold said he hoped that the scheme to build a 9,000-seat stadium with 1,048 flats in five buildings between three and 11 storeys high on the football club’s Kingfield site and an associated development in Egley Road would still happen.

The intention to appeal and the split with Dukelease was mentioned in a letter to Woking Borough Council, a summary of which has been circulated to all councillors.

However, Spencer Leslie, the Dukelease chief financial officer, said that no decision had been made on whether to launch an appeal, nor on Dukelease’s involvement.

Mr Leslie and his brother Richard, the Dukelease CEO, are directors of GolDev Woking.

Spencer Leslie said there was a lot to think about before lodging an appeal, including getting the advice of a barrister about whether or not it was likely to succeed.

“In any company you have different viewpoints on the way forward,” he said.

On 23 June the planning committee refused the main application by eight votes to nil with one abstention and voted unanimously against the other plan to move the David Lloyd Health Club to Egley Road with extra facilities and build 36 houses.

Council officials had recommended approval of the two plans.

Reasons for refusing the Kingfield Road plan included its “excessive height, bulk, mass, housing density and design” which would mean it failed “to respect and make a positive contribution to the street scenes and character of the area.”

For more on this story, see the 9 July edition of the Woking News & Mail