THERE is fresh hope for the decaying Oxford Stadium as officials carry out a fresh study into its future.

This paper can reveal Oxford City Council is conducting a feasibility study into whether bringing speedway and greyhound racing back to the stadium, which has been left to ruin since 2012, would make financial sense.

Campaigners said they are 'more hopeful than ever' on hearing news of the work, which has been kept from the public eye.

An independent specialist has been employed by the council to 'objectively investigate the viability of retaining these facilities'.

He has visited successful greyhound and speedway tracks across the UK to see how they work and has looked at demand in Oxfordshire and nationally.

The results will be published early next year with early indications believed to be looking positive.

If the study shows that speedway and greyhound racing are still viable activities for the site, the findings will be used to strengthen the council's case to seize the Sandy Lane stadium from its current owners through a compulsory purchase order (CPO).

The leader of the council Bob Price said: “Oxford Stadium has played an important role in providing leisure and community facilities, and in particular greyhound racing and speedway, for Oxford and the immediate local area, and the City Council would like to see that continue.

"This is a complex issue and we are looking to gather as much professional advice as possible.

“We know there is a lot of support for it locally, it means a lot to people but we have to do this due diligence.

“I can’t predict what will happen in the future but we need to have the information in place before we can do anything.”

The moves by the council mark a significant step in the campaign to save the stadium, which last hosted speedway in 2008.

Then owner GRA Acquisition and developer Galliard Homes were thwarted in their attempts to build homes on the site in 2015 and since then it has been left to fall into disrepair.

Risinghurst resident Ian Sawyer, who has led the campaign to rescue the site, said he was increasingly hopeful speedway would return to Oxford again.

He said: "This is a massive step in the right direction.

"It shows the council is serious about pursuing a CPO, which is the only way forward.

"If the report is positive, it will massively strengthen our case.

"We are of the belief that speedway and greyhound racing is viable at the stadium.

"I think the people will come flocking back to watch it, there is so much support out there."

In 2016, the Oxford Mail revealed that the stadium was still making a profit before it was shut down, despite those behind the business saying it was no longer 'viable'.

Several separate consortiums have since come forward to express an interest in running the site but the developers have refused to sell.

Fellow campaigner Spencer Timmo, 51, who followed in his father's footsteps and competed in Speedway races on the site in the 1980s, said the current state of the stadium is a 'travesty for Oxford'.

He added: “This news does give us hope that speedway could return.

“We would love to get it back, it would mean everything and we are prepared to do anything.

“I am all for building houses but you need to have things for people to do.

“It’s something different, exciting, a great night out.

“I rode for Oxford for all my career and it was brilliant to race there.

"It was one of the nicest stadiums in the country."

Directors of Risk Capital Partners and its subsidiary Cowley Property Investment, which officially owns the stadium, could not be reached for comment.