Chesterfield Football Club's plans for a new £13 million football stadium took another giant step forward this week when the club took over ownership of 10 acres of land at Whittington Moor from site owners Wilson Bowden Developments.

The new 10,500 all-seater football stadium is an integral part of the major regeneration scheme, which also includes a Tesco Superstore and additional mixed use retail and business premises on the 22 acre A61 Sheffield Road site.

The handover of the land comes just six months after full planning approval was given by Chesterfield Borough Council for the landmark scheme and means that final preparations for the building of the new stadium can now be completed.

View of stadium site looking towards

the South Stand (Kop)

The site enabling work by Wilson Bowden Developments to put in road access, principle infrastructure is progressing, and other remediation work has just been completed and the football club has contributed nearly £500,000 towards the overall costs of this work, with the support of the East Midlands Development Agency (emda).

 An artists impression of the new

stadium development

With a fifty week build programme, next season is now expected to be the last at Saltergate before the club's projected move to its new home for season 2010-11.

Chesterfield FC chairman, Barrie Hubbard, said: "Transferring over the land for our new football stadium is another significant step forward for Chesterfield Football Club and its supporters.  We very much appreciate the crucial support from the East Midlands Development Agency, which has made this possible."

He added: "After all these years we are now within sight of our end goal and look forward to finalizing everything so building work on our new football stadium can commence."

Wilson Bowden development director Neil Harltley said: "I am delighted that we are now in a position to transfer over the land so that Chesterfield Football Club can move ahead with its plan to build a new football stadium on the site."

About emda:

East Midlands Development Agency (emda) is one of nine Regional Development Agencies in England, set up in 1999 to bring a regional focus to economic development.

Working in partnership with public, private and voluntary organisations the aim is to deliver the 2006 Regional Economic Strategy (RES) 'A Flourishing Region', which sets out regional priorities until 2020.

The RES, coordinated by emda, highlights the themes of productivity, sustainability and equality and builds on the previous two strategies; 'Prosperity Through People' and 'Destination 2010'.

In early 2007 the National Audit Office announced emda had received the highest possible grade of 'performing strongly' in an independent assessment of our work - scoring 22 out of 24.

For more details visit www.emda.org.uk.

Full interview with Chesterfield chairman Barrie Hubbard coming soon on Spireites World TV

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