IT is great news that Oxford City Council has axed plans to designate Oxford Stadium as a building site.

Well travelled as I am in connection with the Stadium with both speedway and greyhounds, the fight to keep Sandy Lane as a sporting venue has been going on for years, so should we now think that everything is ‘hunky dory’?

There was outrage from fans of both sports when the parent company Capital Risk Partners told the council they wanted to develop the site, and in the end the council quite rightly, in my opinion, designated the site as a leisure facility. But even that doesn’t seem enough.

It transpires that the city council decision not to allocate the site for redevelopment may not safeguard the track’s future as a developer could still submit a planning application.

It’s make your mind up time. The council should designate the stadium as a leisure site and stick to their guns whatever the future holds.

  • THE Boxing Day meeting, which sees Oxford's best attendance of the year, is again on course for a sell-out.

Places for the Boxing Day Brunch in the restaurant are very limited, so book now to avoid disappointment.

  • KENNEL-sickness created havoc last weekend with 13 non-runners on the Friday and Saturday evening meetings. The condition, which last around 48 hours, meant only three hounds lined up in the sprint race.

Worst hit are some of the retired dogs and trainer Johnny Mayo had to visit the vet with Macadam. Paddock staff have reacted by deep cleaning the kennels with a special disinfectant.