At the London Borough of Hounslow Planning Committee meeting on 9 February, Councillors resolved to approve the London Irish planning application to allow rugby at the new Brentford Community Stadium.

London Irish has a long term aspiration to move back nearer to its roots and play home games in the West London area again. The rugby club submitted in October 2016 their formal planning application to allow rugby at the stadium.

Brentford Football Club very much welcomes this positive decision to allow rugby to be played at the new stadium.

Progress on the implementation of the Brentford Community Stadium project is continuing apace and physical works are expected to commence on the Lionel Road South site shortly. The stadium is due to be completed by the 2019/20 season.

Brentford FC today confirmed that the London Borough of Hounslow has completed the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) land acquisition for the Brentford Community Stadium. The Council has taken freehold possession of the land including the Lionel Road South, Duffy and Capital Court sites, and the football club has taken control of this land through lease arrangements. The freehold interest will return to  the Club on completion of the new stadium development.

This is a significant milestone, and brings to a satisfactory conclusion an 18-month process to assemble the land necessary for the new stadium development.

Before any work can start on site, there are a number of planning and Section 106 requirements that have to be fulfilled. We are working hard with our developer, Prime Place, to achieve these as quickly as possible.

Brentford Football Club’s vision is to have a new 20,000-seat Brentford Community Stadium for both professional football and rugby, subject to the relevant planning permissions. Over a number of years, the new stadium project team has held discussions with several rugby clubs, one of which is London Irish.

 
We understand that the club has a long term aspiration to move back nearer to its roots at some stage and to play home games in the west London area again. With that in mind, London Irish started formal discussions with London Borough of Hounslow on 15th August to explore the potential to play rugby at Brentford Community Stadium.

 
Brentford Football Club welcomes these exploratory discussions with the Council.