Plans for Chelmsford City's £3 million new community stadium on a 14.8 acre site to the north-east edge of the town were finally handed in to borough council planners on Wednesday afternoon.

The stadium, which will initially have 1,000 seats and terracing for 3,000 spectators, will not only bring the semi-professional football club back into the borough but also provide additional sports facilities for other clubs in the area.

Situated on non-green belt land to the north of the current A12 Boreham bypass and main railway line, the stadium complex will also have an all-weather sportsfield, sports injury clinic and football facilities that meet the current Football Conference level.

The main stadium will also have six glass fronted hospitality units, banqueting and function suite accommodating 250 people, plus a seminar and board room along with two car parks with a total capacity of 550 cars.

The football club, which currently has to groundshare at Billericay Town, hope to be kicking off there in February 2002 provided borough councillors approve detailed plans by May of next year so that the pitch can be laid next summer.

The ambitious project, which will help the club expand further their Football in the Community scheme and provide 59 full and part-time jobs once it is up and running, has taken months of behind-the-scenes preparation and planning and cost the club £30,000 to reach this stage.

Club chairman Peter Stroud said: "This is now simply the lifeline of Chelmsford City Football Club because we need to have this stadium built to survive for the future - without returning to the borough and to this new home top level non-league football will not exist anymore.

"We have also worked on this scheme as bringing benefits to the local community, providing a prestigious sporting amenity in the borough that Chelmsford can be proud of," he said.

"A great deal of hard work has gone into these plans by many people, plus we have had tremendous support from Countryside Properties, and we have been able to come up with a scheme that I think is imaginative but sensible for all concerned and will be a credit to the borough."

He said the club had a sound business plan in place to succeed and they would self-finance the project themselves, without loans or borrowing money but with some help from Football Trust grants and Lottery contributions, sponsorship and also issuing shares to businesses and ordinary fans.

Alan Cherry, chairman of Countryside Properties confirmed that they would leasing the land to the club for the proposed new stadium at a nominal cost.

"We are now enhancing our support for the club by helping it to return to a new stadium in the county town," he said. The company is again sponsoring the first team this coming season as part of a three-year deal.''

Stadium impression : The site of City's planned ground and stadium flanked by the rail line and A12.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.