HC Deb 02 March 1967 vol 742 cc672-3
4. Mr. Rowland

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will institute an urgent survey of professional sporting stadia liable to go out of use and to recommend a policy for their alternative recreational use.

The Joint Under-Secretary of State for Education and Science (Mr. Denis Howell)

The possibility of developing football grounds for wider recreational uses is among the matters which the Football Inquiry is examining, and the principles governing these will have application to other professional sporting stadia. The regional sports councils are making an appraisal of major sports facilities.

Mr. Rowland

While thanking the Minister for the reference to wider recreational uses, may I ask whether he would not agree that the Brentford-Queen's Park Rangers affair is a portent of things to come, and that if these stadia are likely to be built over, they would represent an insignificant contribution to housing, but a permanent loss of either actual or potential amenity? The Chester Committee looks only at football, not at dog tracks or race courses. Can the Minister give some further assurance?

Mr. Speaker

Order. Questions must be reasonably brief.

Mr. Howell

I have assured the House that the principles applying to professional football grounds will obviously apply to other professional sports grounds. It would be quite wrong to consider these in isolation, one from the other. I do not know much about the Brentford-Queen's-Park Rangers business, except that it shows that the pattern of professional sport which emerged from the last century will obviously have to change to meet new conditions.

Mr. Hogg

Is not one of the troubles that these grounds are far too uncomfortable, with respect to amenities, to suit spectators as they used to?

Mr. Howell

That is very much one of the problems, into which I have asked the Chester Committee to inquire.