FOREST Green Rovers' owner Dale Vince has confirmed the club's new wooden stadium has been granted formal planning permission by Stroud District Council.

The League Two club had their outline bid for the new 5,000 seat Eco Park stadium approved in December last year, after the committee voted to consent the application with six votes in favour of the plans and four councillors voting against.

Stroud's MP Siobhan Baillie had backed calls for an independent assessment following the vote, and there was a request for the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government Robert Jenrick to call-in the application but it was rejected.

Mr Vince said the club then had two legal agreements to negotiate before the plans could become official.

Posting on Facebook, Mr Vince said: "The first legal agreement with Stroud District Council was fairly straight forward, the second with the County Council took much longer (though it was much simpler), and we nailed that last week and today the council issued the formal planning permission. It’s finally official."

He added: "We’ll crack on now with detailed design work for the stadium. Meanwhile we’ve submitted an application for two training pitches and we’re working with the council on a masterplan for the Local Plan review (next spring) - which will see the return of the green tech biz park - we perhaps need those jobs more than ever now. It’s a big step even though it looked like we took that last December."