London irish's 2016 plans for complex

Sep 1 2009 By Adam Courtney, Surrey Herald

VISIONARY London Irish bosses want an international rugby team to use its proposed £12m Sunbury super-complex as a base at the 2016 World Cup.

They are hoping to move from The Avenue, which has been their home since 1931, to Hazelwood Golf Centre in Croysdale Avenue. A planning application will go in next month after the club agreed a deal to buy the golf course and it hopes to start the development next year.

The complex would have 17 international-standard pitches, including a state-of-the art 3G AstroTurf surface, which is similar to natural grass.

With England nominated to host the 2016 World Cup, director John Conlan hopes a national team such as New Zealand, Australia or France will choose the village as its base.

He said: "We are hoping the facility will be a focal point during the championships."

Mr Conlan says the complex would be open to hundreds of schoolchildren and of benefit to the whole borough.

"We are already the biggest sporting institution in Spelthorne and we want to open ourselves to even more children," he added.

The move's completion depends on the sale to developers of the club's 16-acre plot in The Avenue. Artists have released impressions of the proposals, which would see about 250 two and three-bedroom houses built, including a retirement complex.

A public exhibition of the plans will take place at the golf centre on Friday, September 11, and Saturday, September 12.