We support Oxford Stadium for two reasons. One is that in terms of our local plan, we see this site as a very important leisure facility.

We considered it and rejected it when we put together our sites and housing plan because it is important to maintain a mixture of leisure facilities in the area.

Oxford Mail:

Bob Price, leader of Oxford City Council

You have got the Kassam Stadium and the Blackbird Leys Leisure Centre as well as Oxford Stadium, which serves both Blackbird Leys and Cowley, and we didn’t want to lose it to a mass of housing.

What the stadium can offer is a mixture of greyhound racing and speedway, which doesn’t exist anywhere else in Oxfordshire, but there are also facilities for keep-fit, dance studios and go kart racing.

It is in a great central location that could be accessed easily and quickly by bike or on foot.

There is also a community reason for wanting to keep the stadium, which is why we are trying to designate it as a conservation area.

It is massively supported by the local community as part of the heritage of the city. It is not just a current leisure facility, but it is part of Oxford’s heritage. The stadium still has the old tote building.

However you modernise the stadium – which clearly has to be done – it is important that the heritage of the site is maintained.

The level of support for the stadium extends from the city to the surrounding region.

There could be some housing on the site and we have never said that there shouldn’t be, but we have not had a planning application to propose that.

We made it clear to the Greyhound Racing Association and developers Galliard when we met them that if they kept the leisure facilities we would be happy to have some housing there.

It is for the same reasons that we wouldn’t build houses on the flood plain.

You have to retain a balance between the housing need of the city and leisure facilities and green spaces.

As far as we are concerned we see the housing need of the city as being so huge that you cannot hope to plug it with a few sites here and there. You need a significant urban extension – or two.

We feel we have an extremely strong case in the upcoming planning inquiry. Our planning policies are very clear in terms of the principals involved.

What is also fundamental to this is that the site is viable and this will be part of our case at the inquiry.

There have been several people who have come forward to buy the stadium who are willing to run it as a facility which includes greyhound racing and speedway.

Galliard is refusing to sell – and I have no idea if they will sell – but it would be very sensible to recognise that their case at the inquiry is very weak.

But if they take it to the inquiry in September and they lose, I would expect them to look at alternatives for the stadium and one of those could be selling it.

Other councils around the UK have not supported their greyhound stadiums but each council has got its own local plan and its own take on the viability of a site.

There is no direct comparison between them. You have got to look at it on a case-by-case basis.

Oxford Stadium is very special for what it offers the city and the county.