3,600 truckloads to help make stadium site 7 feet higher!

Proposals approved by councillors yesterday marked the latest step in the Millers’ move home.

The 16-acre Guest and Chrimes site will be lifted by an average of seven feet before the 12,000-seater ground is built.

The required 54,000 cubic metres of material will be sourced from Maltby Colliery and Tata Steel at Parkgate.

It will be taken to the stadium site, off Main Street in the town centre, by 3,600 tipper truck journeys over a nine-week period.

A spokesman for consultants Signet Planning said: “The proposal is for an engineering operation to raise the land levels on a site which comprises an important brownfield regeneration site close to the town centre.

“It will deliver both the next phase of the flood alleviation scheme to this part of the borough and facilitate the new Rotherham Community Stadium.”

He added: “The development will result in principally beneficial impacts in respect of flood risk and drainage considerations.

“It will assure the safety of future users and visitors to the ensuing development on the site, as well as facilitating an important element of the wider flood scheme.

“Material sources as close as possible have been selected to ensure any temporary impact on the highway network is minimised as much as possible.”

The stadium site, which also housed the Gloystarne warehouse, lies within the River Don flood plain. Rotherham Borough Council has worked with the Environment Agency on flood relief measures throughout the town centre, including adjacent land.

United have played home games at Don Valley since leaving Millmoor in 2008. The new stadium should be ready for the beginning of the 2012/13 season.