Elland Road at heart of leisure quarter schemeCOUNCIL bosses today revealed details of a multi-million pound development masterplan to change the face of Elland Road and create thousands of jobs.
The blueprint for the land around Leeds United's football ground sets out options for a new leisure quarter.
They include an arena, casino, hotels, shops, restaurants, housing, health club, a tree-lined boulevard along a section of Elland Road, new roads and 2,700 parking spaces.
Also included in the masterplan for the former greyhound stadium and match-day car parks is a new police headquarters, which could throw a question mark over Millgarth police station in the city centre which stands on a prime development site.
Leeds City Council has drawn up the schemes in conjunction with Yorkshire Forward, Stanley Leisure Ltd and Leeds United. Options include one plan with an arena and one without.
The arena, casino and health club could form part of a complex joined to a re-modelled Elland Road stadium. A hotel could also be attached to the ground.
Council leader Coun Andrew Carter described the prominent site – much of which is owned by the council and overlooked by the Leeds-London railway line and the M621 – as a blot on the landscape and said some sort of development was needed to improve it.
But he stressed that at this stage the masterplan merely set out a range of options and did not represent firm proposals.
He said: "It shows what might be considered for the area, subject to many things including public consultation."
Coun Carter said he had already assured the Beeston Forum, a community group, that their concerns over traffic and other issues would have to be taken into account.
The masterplan says the site is of strategic importance, has significant regeneration potential and is "undoubtedly integral to Leeds United's aspiration to reassert itself as a force in the Premiership."
It sets out a vision of creating a "vibrant leisure quarter" around the football stadium.
It says the next steps include drawing up a strategy for wider consultation.
The masterplan adds that the council and other interested parties will need to consider the best way of achieving the developments, which could include establishing partnership or joint venture arrangements.
If adopted by the council's executive board, the blueprint will be used as a planning framework to help guide applications for development.
Gaming giant Stanley Leisure paid Leeds United £5m for first option on a seven-acre site behind Elland Road's Revie Stand in 2004.
It has already said it will be bidding for the right to run the massive casino which Leeds was granted permission to license last month, the location of which has yet to be decided by council chiefs.
A decision has also still to be taken on where the city's proposed 12,500-seater entertainment arena could be built.
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