THE future of St Mirren has been secured after councillors voted to approve their planning application for a supermarket at Love Street. Yesterday's decision was a huge victory for the club, who can now raise enough money to pay off their debts of [pounds]2.2m and build a Premierleague-compliant stadium nearby.
Last week, planning officials recommended the plans be refused, but a meeting of the planning board voted 9-5 in favour of the proposal to build a supermarket at the current Love Street site. The second part of the application, to build a new stadium in the Ferguslie Park area, was also approved.
Fans converged on the council chambers and there were scenes of jubilation as an emotional Stewart Gilmour, the club's chairman, emerged to relay the good news.
He said: "I appreciate there were a number of issues involved in these proposals but the main issue is that we still have a football club in Paisley.
"It's been a rollercoaster journey and this is the culmination of five years' work. The debt that has been round our neck since taking over is away.
"This is about the long-term future of St Mirren. We'll have a modern ground with modern income streams from outwith football and it's our responsibility to make sure that we never again allow debt to be run up against the ground."
The importance of St Mirren to the community of Paisley and its environs was the key factor in nine of the 14 councillors backing the proposal.
If planning permission for a supermarket had been denied, the club would have had to sell the site for housing, which would have brought in less than half of the [pounds]10m a retail sale will raise. St Mirren had already explored the possibility of groundsharing with Partick Thistle next season, but Gilmour has said such a move could lead to the death of the club.
The club can now listen to offers from interested supermarket operators, but Gilmour insists they will take their time over the sale. "We're not just going to dive in for the first thing, that would be irresponsible. On the planning board meeting there were two Tesco stores which were refused so hopefully they'll talk to us."
Despite the off-field turmoil, the team has prospered on the field, with manager Gus MacPherson guiding them to second. However, Gilmour said yesterday's decision will not have an immediate knock-on effect in terms of the playing budget for next season.
"I think it will take 12 months for everything to solidify and then it'll take another 12 months to build things. I don't think it will have much effect on Gus for the next 12 months. We were criticised today because last year we lost [pounds]100,000, but the debt will be more next year because we're actually paying [pounds]140,000 in interest charges and also running a planning application that's already cost [pounds]250,000. " MacPherson hopes that the strength of public feeling which has been stirred up in the course of the campaign will be ref lected in crowds next season.
"There was a word mentioned today in the chambers about 'passive supporters'. We don't want them at St Mirren. We want supporters to come out and support the team and I'm sure with their backing we can have a positive season."
David Grier, chairman of the St Mirren independent Supporters association, said: "Our hope is that the new stadium can be a community-based stadium and not a place that just serves people once every two weeks."
Yesterday's decision has been referred to the Scottish executive for consideration as it goes against the Renfrewshire Local Plan. They have 28 days to either accept the proposal or trigger a public inquiry.
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