Meadow Park was a football stadium in Hempsted, Gloucester. It has been home to Gloucester City A.F.C. from 1986 to 2007. It was destroyed by flooding in 2007 and is currently being rebuilt, with the aim of it being completed by the start of the 2020–21 season.
History
Meadow Park was not the first home of Gloucester City A.F.C., their previous venue was Horton Road Stadium from 1964 to 1986. The club officially moved to Meadow Park in 1986. In 1990, the stadium flooded after severe snowfall. It was submerged under 4 feet of water when the snow melted, which meant the ground couldn't be used for over a month. In December 2000, the River Severn flooded submerged the stadium in 7 feet of water, and the changing rooms were also flooded and ruined. The ground was out of commission for more than 6 weeks, after an environmental health inspection ruled that the ground wasn't fit for use due to the contamination of the water. On 22 July 2007, in UK-wide floods, the stadium flooded and by the following morning the water was over 8 feet deep. The entire pitch was swamped with the clubhouse, kitchen facilities, changing rooms and shop all being flooded. Due to previous flooding incidents, the club had been unable to obtain insurance so was now faced with a large clean-up bill. The club started a fund to pay for this appealing to fans for donations. Meadow Park has been in ruin since this date, with the club playing at various other grounds instead.
In 2007, Gloucester City Council established a "Football Task and Finish Group" who evaluated several sites in the city before deciding that building a new stadium at Meadow Park was the best viable solution. In 2011, a planning application for a new stadium and industrial land was submitted but this was refused by Gloucester City Council in 2013. In 2014, scaled down plans for a 4,000 capacity stadium with a 1,000 seat stand were submitted and approved by the council, albeit with 45 additional conditions imposed by the council. The aim was to have it built within 12 to 18 months however this never went ahead. In September 2016, variations to address the many conditions of the original planning permission were approved. These included allowing building work to start before the footpath was widened and bicycle parking was built. However, there was still little progress made on the actual building of the stadium other than ground preparation work. On 14 September 2018, a telephone mast obstructing the ground was taken down. In October 2018, scaled down plans for a new 3,000 seater stadium were revealed as the original plan became too expensive to fund. This included two 250-seater stands, a covered terrace for 800 fans and plans to repair the existing Arriva House and Clubhouse. It also proposed to move the existing open terrace stand currently residing at Evesham, back to Meadow Park. In January 2019, the plans were submitted to the council to include two 350-seater stands. On 2 May 2019, planning permission was granted for the amended plans with the proposed stadium having a capacity of 3,208, despite concerns voiced by Gloucestershire Constabulary regarding emergency vehicle access to the site. The club moved to secure funding through The Football Stadia Improvement Fund. In May 2019, the Football Association and National League granted the club permission to switch venues at any point in the 2019–20 season as soon as the new stadium is ready. Final conditions for access to the Football Stadia Improvement Fund were agreed in November 2019, with construction of the new stadium commencing on 6 January 2020. To safeguard the renovated stadium from flooding in the future, the building works included raising the surface level of the pitch, stands and clubhouse 3.5 metres from the level of the old Meadow Park. The club expects to move back to Meadow Park by the start of the 2020–21 season.
