THE campaign to Save Oxford Stadium has gone national after members travelled to Cardiff to support the reopening of the site at the Speedway Grand Prix.

A group of 50 to 60 people sported t-shirts and a four metre-long banner reading ‘bring the Cheetahs backs to Oxford Stadium’ at travelled to the Welsh capital on Saturday.

Save Oxford Stadium campaigner Alan Selwood said the demonstration at the Grand Prix showed the community the group was ‘still alive and kicking’.

It comes after a senior Oxford City Council officer was appointed earlier this month to take charge of efforts to wrest back control of the once great and long-neglected stadium.

Since last year the local authority has been working on plans to seize the greyhound and speedway track in Sandy Lane through a compulsory purchase order.

Mr Selwood said the speedway supporters club were ‘still guessing’ as to what was happening in the move to reopen the stadium.

The 57-year-old added: “At the moment we know as much as everyone else really.

“There is definitely a lot of interest.”

In order to force a buyback of the stadium the council needs to show it has a prospective buyer with a viable business case for bringing it back.

Tim Sadler, the council’s executive director for a sustainable city, is the person tasked with co-ordinating efforts towards the CPO.

Mr Selwood said the supporters group had met a lot of other speedway fans travelling to the Grand Prix a the weekend and decided to take the campaign to save the stadium further afield as part of their annual trip.

He added: “It’s a good day out. We come down every year.”

Since the closure of Oxford Stadium in 2012, which is a heritage site and conservation area, the site has fell into disrepair by owners Cowley Property Investments.

Its parent firm, venture capitalists Risk Capital Partners, was thwarted in its attempts to build homes on the site in 2015 and has remained silent ever since.

When it was swapped from one subsidiary firm to another last year it was revealed the transaction was worth £1.5m, putting a value on the land for the first time in years.

Meanwhile, enforcement teams from the council are working with tenants on a string of potential security concerns as the site continues to decay.

Linda Smith met with Mr Sadler to ‘chart a plan’ to give members of the community in Blackbird Leys and campaigners a timescale on proceedings. She previously said having a senior officer working on the stadium situation would drive progress.