THE owners of Swindon Robins’ home have broken their silence over the status of the new speedway stadium, insisting that the facility can be built 'in a matter of weeks’ once outstanding issues with the site have been resolved.

Robins’ supporters have become increasingly frustrated with the snail’s-pace progress of the purpose-built track, with the club now seeing out the remainder of their 2017 SGB Premiership season at their current home.

Despite hosting a farewell meeting to the Abbey Stadium at the end of the 2015 season, hold-ups to the building of the new stadium have seen the proposed move date repeatedly pushed back.

The latest date given for the switch was July this year, but delays with the building phases of the housing development, which were submitted as part of the original plans, have seen that date shelved, leading to increasing speculation over the future viability of the project and speedway in the town, with stadium owner Gaming International Ltd coming under fire over the impasse.

However, Gaming International director Clarke Osborne insists such concerns are unfounded, pointing out the current stadium has remained open in the meantime and that construction of the new facility has already begun, albeit off-site.

Osborne, whose company owns National League football club Torquay United, has also come under fire over its proposals to move the Gulls away from their current Plainmoor base, did concede the Swindon delays - which he has attributed to drainage issues - have proved frustrating, but added that work on the new stadium was continuing.

“We did not close one operation there before the other is built,’’ he told DevonLive.com, with reference to the Swindon site.

“It’s a big development, and the delays have mostly been down to technical matters of drainage, not the speedway track but to the whole site, which is massive.

“The new stadium is already half-constructed, and it rests in South Wales in huge packs – it all bolts together, as these things are constructed these days, and once it’s on site, it’s built in a matter of weeks.

“It’s been hugely frustrating and expensive, and I should know because I’m the guy who writes the cheques.”