Over a year ago we surveyed Swindon Town supporters for their views on safe standing at the County Ground and we then presented the results to the Club. Move forward 12 months and the Football League is consulting its 72 member clubs on how they would like it to take the safe standing debate forward. Will the club continue to offer their support?

Following the League’s AGM in May, when three-quarters of the clubs passed a resolution charging the executive team with looking further into the possibilities of safe standing, the League has now produced a comprehensive consultation paper and asked the clubs four specific questions.

• Should the Football League approach the minister for sport to request that the ‘all-seater’ stadia requirement for Championship clubs be reviewed with a view to the re-introduction of standing accommodation?
• Should the Football League approach the Sports Grounds Safety Authority to request that rail seating products be licensed in Football League grounds?
• Should clubs be permitted to accommodate supporters in rail seating in the Championship?
• Should clubs be permitted to revert from seating to standing accommodation in League One and League Two following relegation from the Championship?

Following the publication of our 2012 safe standing survey results that revealed 87% of Swindon Town supporters surveyed would welcome the introduction of a safe standing area at the County Ground, we now hope the club will offer a positive response to answer YES to all of the four questions. This is essential in order for the necessary safe standing trials to be implemented that could then pave the way for standing to return to some sections of Football League grounds.

Let’s remember the club remember the views of their supporters and their response to our survey results 12 months ago when making their feedback to the Football League…

“Swindon Town is a club that prides itself on listening to its fans and when surveys such as the recent one run by ‘TheWashbag.com’ fan website indicate that 87% of Town supporters would welcome the introduction of a safe standing area as part of a redevelopment of the County Ground, we are naturally only too happy to have that debate and explore whether that is something that may be possible in the years ahead.

To this end Stadium & Operations Manager Mark Isaacs recently attended a presentation at Westminster on safe standing using the rail seats concept, to learn first-hand what is being proposed and might be available to the club in years to come.

Representatives of Aston Villa and Peterborough United, who were in attendance, requested the opportunity to be allowed to run small-scale trials of such safe standing areas.

As we believe that such trials would be useful for the football community as a whole in order to enable all concerned to take fully informed, evidence-based decisions on the possible wider introduction of such areas in the future, Swindon Town Football club fully supports Villa and Peterborough in their request to be allowed to run such trials.”

Please give your support to safe standing and sign the FSF’s Safe Standing Campaign petition TODAY!