Here is the full statement from The Official St. Mirren Website:
St Mirren supporters are being urged to attend the Renfrewshire Council planning board meeting on Tuesday, May 24, at 12 noon in the Renfrewshire Council Chambers, Cotton Street, Paisley.
This is when 14 councillors on the planning board will vote whether to allow a supermarket at Love Street which would pay for a new stadium to be built at Greenhill Road, Paisley.
Planning officials are recommending refusal of the supermarket at Love Street which is needed to fund this new stadium for Saints.
The officials’ main objection appears to be that a supermarket at Love Street could adversely affect other food stores in Paisley town centre.
The retail impact assessment carried out by St Mirren’s planning consultants had reported there would be minimal impact on the town centre.
However, Renfrewshire Council planning officials just recently decided to commission their own report – which they have refused to let St Mirren see – which claims there would be a bigger impact on town centre food stores.
Club chairman Stewart Gilmour said: “Councillors have it within their power to vote to overturn this recommendation from planning officials and I would urge the councillors on the planning board to do just that.
“Although the officials’ recommendation is to approve the new stadium in Greenhill Road, without Love Street being sold to a supermarket operator, the club will not have the money to build this new stadium.
“In a nutshell, if we don’t get approval for a supermarket at Love Street, St Mirren will not exist in Paisley. A condition of our overdraft is that if we don’t have permission to build a supermarket, we have to sell the ground anyway and that is most likely to be for housing. Unfortunately, the value of land for housing is about half what you get for retail and that’s not enough to build a new stadium.
“Our consultants’ retail impact assessment states that a supermarket at Love Street would have a minimal impact on Paisley town centre. In fact, these experts believe that a supermarket at Love Street would bring supermarket shoppers closer to Paisley town centre than they would be shopping elsewhere at the moment.
“Ironically, Love Street is actually closer to the centre of Paisley than the new Morrisons supermarket which councillors have allowed to be built at the back end of the former Anchor Mills site.”
Mr Gilmour added: “I would hope the councillors on the planning board will approve both our applications. If they do, they would not only be voting to save St Mirren, they would be voting to keep a major part of Paisley’s heritage, they would be voting for the tens of thousands of youngsters who attend our football camps and coaching classes in Renfrewshire Council schools and they would be voting to keep something positive and something special for the future.
“What is at stake is something real and something tangible that is good for Paisley and Renfrewshire.
“We appreciate the councillors have a decision to make. If they decide to allow a supermarket to serve a large part of the town – North Paisley, which doesn’t have such a facility, they will be remembered as the people who helped save St Mirren for Paisley, it’s people, it’s heritage and its future.
”It’s important that as many people as possible turn up to show the councillors the depth of feeling for St Mirren there is in the town and that there is a desire for the club to be saved.”