User:The C of E/Avenue sandbox

(2540 words ...London Irish played their last senior league game at The Avenue on 1 May 1999 against Saracens. The Avenue, at it's peak, could hold up to 6,600 spectators. The ground still does however host the senior London Irish team's pre-season friendlies. The stadium is also used as a training venue for the London Irish England Rugby Academy.

Redevelopment plans
London Irish revealed in 2009 that they were planning to demolish their ancestral home ground and current training facility to replace it with 400 houses while relocating the club offices and training to the nearby Hazelwood Golf Centre.

When their plans were revealed, at the planning meeting, the Spelthorne Liberal Democrats councillors opposed The Avenue redevelopment plans on the grounds that they disagreed with the Conservative policy that 80% of the new homes needed to have either one or two bedrooms. It was also opposed by the Labour candidate for the Spelthorne parlimentary constituency in the 2010 UK general election, Adam Tyler-Moore. As a result of the plans, local residents set up protest groups against the plans such as the Sunbury Opposes London Irish Development (SOLID) and Lower Sunbury Residents Association. Along with the Liberal Democrat's objections, on 15 April 2010, 500 people organised a protest march against the plans claiming that London Irish just wanted to make money off the land despite the club's claim that it would engage with the community. The plans did however have the support of the Rugby Football Union, Premier Rugby, Sport England and the Rugby Player's Association. As a result of the negative reaction from the local residents, the club downsized their plans from 400 to less than 200 houses as well as including construction of a heathcare centre and a residential care home to go in with the developments.

...the plans were rejected because in the council's eyes, the development "...would have resulted in an unacceptable lose (sic) of an outdoor sports facility." It was revealed that the council had recieved 857 letters opposing the plans with only 250 letters in support of them, with 206 of the supporting letters coming from outside the borough. London Irish announced that they would appeal against this decision. This appeal lead to the council announcing an inquiry to be held on 7 June 2011 and lasting 12 days to discuss the future of the ground. The London Irish Chief Executive, Andy Martin said that the move was needed as the ground lacked sufficiant rugby pitches and that they had the senior team sharing facilities with the amateur and junior teams.