I WAS sorry to read that Poole Town Football Club does not feature in Stadia UK’s plans for the proposed development of Poole Stadium.

Having read and re-read your article ‘Bikes & Dogs but No Dolphins’ (Daily Echo, July 8) it seems to throw up more questions than answers.

I’m struggling to understand the exact reasons behind this decision – is it the pitch I wonder?

We all know that a football pitch is rectangular and trying to accommodate one in the middle of both greyhound and speedway tracks going around the outside is always going to be a logistical challenge.

I don’t know what the minimum dimensions required for all three sports are but accept that it must be a tight squeeze trying to fit them all in.

Back in the day, I remember Poole’s footballers having to take corner kicks on turf laid on temporary pallets, which were then removed for the speedway – not an ideal situation. But surely, with careful planning and design, this is something that could be worked out.

Eddie Mitchell’s vision for a re-developed Poole Stadium, which the Echo featured in 2014, was also somewhat disappointing and it resembled more of a housing development to me.

In light of the recent achievements of Tommy Killick’s men, Poole Town deserves to be playing at a better ground and Poole Stadium has to be the number one option as it is central to the town and steeped in Dolphins history.

When Poole’s hard-working vice-chairman, Chris Reeves, says the stadium project doesn’t ‘tick all our boxes’, what does he mean exactly? I would have thought it ticks every single box going, or is there something we are missing here? Finance perhaps?

I for one haven’t given up on Poole Town returning to their spiritual home and only hope that this particular football hasn’t been kicked permanently into the long grass.

CLIVE YOUNG

Bracken Glen, Poole

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