Bristol City get green light on stadium plans

Bristol City Football club have received the green light from the local council planning authorities to proceed with their plans a new stadium

Speaking seconds after the ruling, City's chief executive Colin Sextone said "To get the permission in the Green Belt, albeit with some reservations, was the big hurdle to cross...There are other hurdles that we still need to cross, but that was the big one. We've got to be very pleased because a lot of hard work has gone into this...There were a lot of contentious issues in this and emotions were going to be high. We understand that but overall this is very good news and we're very pleased."

The new stadium will include a hotel and conference facilities and be capable of expanding to seat 40,000 fans. The stadium relocation and land development project will cost £90m in total, and depends on the club finding a buyer for Ashton Gate.Sainsbury's has signed an agreement to buy the land at Ashton Gate but its planning application will not be submitted until March 2010.