ALTON Town Council voted D for Diggers on Wednesday night - a compromise which should secure a bright future for Alton Town Football Club while reducing the loss of public open space by seeking to site an artificial turf pitch (ATP) at Eggar's School. Under the option, Alton Social Bowls Club will be sited on land in Chawton Park Road and councillors agreed to push Coors for additional funding to secure extra tennis courts and floodlights for Alton Tennis Club. The decision to release town council- owned land for the relocation of sporting facilities from the Coors Sports Ground in Anstey Road will enable the brewing giant to move forward with its plan to sell the site for redevelopment. As a condition of planning, it will be required to relocate Alton Town Football Club and Alton Social Bowls Club in a multi-million pound deal which councillors believe could benefit the community as a whole. But it will come at a cost for those concerned about loss of public open space. Having consulted extensively over the last four months, Alton councillors were well aware of the responsibility they shouldered. It was standing room only at the Assembly Rooms on Wednesday when crunch time came during a full ATC meeting chaired by Town Mayor Dave Crocker. Having opened up the floor for members of the public and representative groups to have their final say, councillors had before them six options. Based on considerable, strongly- researched public and council input they included, at one end of the scale, an option to refuse to release any town council-owned land for the relocation of Coors-based sporting facilities and at the other end, to defer any decision pending further research. Both were rejected. Since Coors agent, Atisreal, had already failed to find any suitable relocation sites, without the offer of ATC-owned land, it was felt the company would simply go for planning permission and offer East Hampshire District Council planners a commuted payment to replace lost facilities. This would put EHDC in control of decisions about the new facilities and therefore might not address Alton's needs. To defer was not considered an option for similar reasons. Furthermore, councillors felt that ATC staff had spent enough time already on the project to the exclusion of other work. Option "B" – the original Coors proposal to site a new stadium for ATFC alongside an ATP – also failed. The growing swell of opposition led by Manor Road residents who would be directly affected by the development behind their homes on what is currently an open field dogleg extension to Anstey Park, and by casual users of the park (Anstey Park Casual Users Group), ruled it out. They were vehemently opposed to the road that would be needed to access the development and to the loss of an open field currently used as a kick-about area, and for dog walking. They were supported in this view by the Alton Society. Like options "C" and "D", option "B" called for the relocation of Alton Social Bowls Club to a site in Chawton Park Road – a proposed move that had attracted little negative comment. The only reservation had been expressed by Pam Bradford, whose concern was for the increasing number of new homes being built at that end of town bringing children who would need open space play areas. Option "C" was an adaptation of "B" but with the relocation of the ATP south of the proposed new football stadium at the top of Diggers, leaving an area of open space adjacent to the Manor estate. It was rejected for the same reasons as "B". For a long time "E" had been the favoured option among councillors, but it was considered too big a risk. While sticking with the bowls relocation plan and for an ATP, possibly at Eggars, it would call for a commuted sum from Coors to enable ATFC to relocate to the existing enclosure in Anstey Park currently occupied by Alton United FC. A new site would then be found for the relocation of Alton United and the enclosure ripped out and rebuilt to comply with Wessex League standards. This would include floodlights. The council had been offered two out-of-town sites for Alton United but, according to town clerk Steve Parkinson, EHDC planners had since indicated that neither would be considered favourably for sporting facilities. There were too many imponderables in "E", the meeting believed. It had not been possible to ascertain from Coors how much the commuted sum would be. It would place a heavy resource burden on ATC to lead all projects within five years, and it would leave two football clubs without a home for some time. Furthermore, the council would need to employ professional advisers. Option "D" was felt by the majority to be the only compromise. A "grass-through-brick" access road to Diggers could be concealed behind a bank to make it less intrusive, its maintenance being paid for by ATFC who would be relocated at Diggers but as far away from houses as possible. If located at Eggar's School, responsibility for maintaining and managing the ATP would be offloaded to Hampshire County Council, presenting no future threat to the tax payer and the floodlights would have little impact on local residents. Alton Town Council now has to officially notify Atisreal of its decision. Mr Crocker later praised all who attended the meeting for their exemplary behaviour throughout.