An action group has been set up by residents committed to saving a corner of Gloucester Park in Basildon which they fear will be eaten up by a proposed football stadium.

Homeowners around the park are in uproar over plans to site Billericay Town Football Club in the area, claiming it will destroy one of the town's last green "lungs".

An 8,000-capacity stadium is planned near the park's athletics track.

Rod Moore, Billericay Town Football Club's chairman, explained a new ground would be one part of a complex aimed at benefiting the whole community in and around Gloucester Park.

He said: "We are not talking about Old Trafford. We are talking about a football match once a week, which lasts around two and a half hours including arriving and leaving, compared with all the benefits the complex will bring in throughout the year."

Published Wednesday August 14, 2002

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