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The planning application for Woking FC’s controversial new stadium and area regeneration has been submitted, with the developer securing a £250 million loan facility from the council for the build.

The club added that while a modern and larger stadium will help ensure the team’s long-term sustainability and success, it will allow them to do even more for the community too.

The new plans due to be put forward have dropped the proposed spectator capacity by almost 1,000, down to 9,026.

Woking FC is in an average annual deficit of £200,000 and only fared slightly better financially in 2018 due to a good FA Cup run, where the club came up against Premier League side Watford.

In August, the South Action Woking group campaigning against the development called the previous plans a " monstrosity " and started a petition with several hundred signatures and attended council meetings.

Having listened to residents' concerns, the development will have a medical centre accommodating 14,400 patients too - far more than the number of new residents occupying the 1,000 flats.

John Walker is part of the group behind the project. He said: “That means it has a massive capacity for the wider Woking community and takes strain off existing surgeries.

(Image: Holmes Miller Architect)

“The parking has also been revised and is all underground now, and has gone up from 500 to 850 spaces so it meets the council policy which it did not before," he added.

All the car spaces will be electric charging compliant, but only 10% will be active to begin with and the rest will become active as technology improves and demand increases.

While there is a disparity between the number of flats being built and the parking spaces being allocated, Mr Walker insists that statistically, not everyone will have a car.

Club director Ian Nicholson added: “My children and a lot of others I know are not even learning to drive and get cars in this area. My son did not pass his test until he was over 30.”

All initial buyers will get a fold-up bicycle along with units to store them, in order to encourage residents to use greener modes of transport.

(Image: Holmes Miller Architect)

However, Andy Caulfield is part of the opposition group and lives close to the ground while his mother's property directly borders the site.

He acknowledged they have tinkered with the plans but says changes are minimal, and while consultation supposedly took place there was no dialogue between the action group and planners.

He explained: "They refused to respond to any of our requests for meetings despite promising the council they would do. This talk of engaging with the community is nonsense, they are engaging with people who support them selectively.

"If we were just football fans who did not live in the vicinity, we probably would not care about the residential blocks too much either. It ignores the impact on the immediate local community. Its all PR spin frankly."

The number of floors have been reduced in certain areas so that proportion of land covered by the 10-storey blocks is lower, now accounting for only 4% of the development.

Mr Walker explained: “The 10-storey elements are designed not to be on the edge of the street next to people’s homes, but in the centre of the development next to the football ground.

“It's a modulation of different heights and they will drop down to three (on the roadside).

"The houses by our big stand are 10 metres away from six storeys now, but that will be 75 metres afterwards.”

The pair were keen to emphasise how critical this deal was to the survival of the football club, which Mr Nicholson said is the main community hub for many, not just fans of football.

(Image: Holmes Miller Architect)

He added: “The club has been in a shortfall for 25 years and it's just getting harder, we are living on borrowed time.

"We have won four of the last eight awards for the best community club nationally.”

There will be space for shops, events and functions so the ground’s facilities are used seven days a week rather than one Tuesday or Saturday night every few weeks, according to Mr Walker.

Mr Nicholson boasted that Woking is Surrey’s premier football club, and will soon have the county’s premier stadium too. There will be a concierge for residents manned from 7am-10pm.

While the football club would temporarily relocate and ground share, they will be financially supported by the developers and no worse off. The whereabouts of their temporary home is not yet known.

Plans were shown to the football fans on Thursday (November 28), and a public exhibition was held at the town's Peacocks shopping centre too.