Plans to submit an application for a £50 million football and community sports hub in Aberdeen have been put on hold until October.

Aberdeen Football Club (FC) confirmed today, 24 May, it will not present proposals for the new facility at Kingsford next month as further work needs to be carried out to "inform assessment of the application, including additional environmental surveys".

The two-phase scheme involves creating new community and sports facilities on the 24.5 hectare site, as well as a football academy comprising outdoor pitches, pavilion and ancillary buildings; and a 20,000-seat capacity stadium along with associated access roads, parking, landscaping and engineering works.

Despite the plans now set to be presented to the council in October, Executive Vice Chairman of Aberdeen FC George Yule said the Club is confident it can still meet the original completion target dates.

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"Although this is later than we had hoped, we are confident that, if planning permission is granted in October, we will still meet the original target timescales of completing the community sports campus and football training academy in 2018 and the new stadium for the 2020/21 season," he said.

"We have already invested considerable resource, both internally and with our team of external experts, in developing a comprehensive planning application package. This important development will deliver real benefit in sporting, social and economic terms for stakeholders and we look forward to it being considered on its merits via the statutory planning process.

"We provided the additional information requested as part of a positive and co-operative two-way process between the Club and the City Council, both of whom are committed to ensuring that the application brought forward is considered rigorously against a comprehensive package of supporting information."

However, Mr Yule warned that any further delays will "have a material impact on the Club's ability to recruit and retain talent and to maintain our current position within Scottish football".

"AFC ensures this region is profiled nationally and internationally and has further plans to enhance its reputation as a visionary organisation, competing successfully in domestic and European competition, with best in class facilities for our supporters, staff and players at all ages," he said.

"We cannot deliver this vision and provide a positive role model for young people without suitable new facilities."

(LM/MH)