Showpark plans hit stalemate

Oct 8 2008 by Paul Thomson, East Kilbride News

EAST Kilbride Thistle has this week revealed big money plans to redevelop the Showpark – but a dispute between the club and the landowners has caused a stalemate.

The multi-million pound project has been in the pipeline for over two years but Thistle has finally broken their silence on the development after becoming frustrated with the landowners.

East Kilbride Cattle Society own the Showpark site, but Thistle chairman John Drummond has been left fuming by what he claims is the society’s reluctance to agree on a deal.

This is something the Cattle Society strongly denies.

Thistle claim a major property developer is backing the project and that it has “sounded out” the council on the plans, but the chair of planning at South Lanarkshire Council, Councillor Graham Scott, insists he is unaware of any discussions.

He said: “No planning applications have been submitted for the Showpark site and there have been no pre-application discussions with planning officials on the subject. The council is currently not involved in relation to the plans for the site.”

According to the club, the society has been offered a deal worth £1 million to relinquish the land, with £900,000 put on the table for the site and a further £100,000 offered to cover the cost of equipment and facilities for the farmers.

But the major sticking point has come with the farmers’ firm intentions of obtaining a ‘clawback’ on any future sale of the ground.

And Drummond claims to have documents showing bids made from the club to the society over the last 10 months, and he insists the council was kept informed of the proposals and the negotiations that followed.

Drummond explained: "We started on these plans in early 2006 with the rest of the committee and decided to look into obtaining grants in helping to fund it.

"Once these were in place we approached a property developer, who was interested in coming on board and we enlisted an architect