Savills - Leisure Development - Southend-on-Sea, Fossetts Farm

Date: 11 Mar 2008

Roots Hall Ltd on behalf of Southend United Football Club, advised by Savills, has received full planning permission from the Secretary of State for its 22,000 seat new football stadium and mixed use development at Fossetts Farm.

The new development will comprise a stadium funded by over 16,400 sq ft (1,523 sq m) open A1 retail space, 67 residential units and a hotel/conference centre. It will include replacement training pitches, an all weather pitch and car parking.

The stadium will relocate from its current ground, Roots Hall Stadium, for the start of the season in September 2010. It will be built on land at Fossetts Farm that was identified for use in the Southend-on-Sea Core Strategy in December 2007. The current Roots Hall stadium will unlock further development potential for a foodstore and residential site.

Mary Power, director of Planning at Savills, says: "The new club will stimulate economic regeneration within Southend, and enhance its profile as a key destination within the Thames Gateway. The wider development will enable the delivery of a significant benefit to the community by way of a new stadium and unrestricted retail space, providing new jobs and a more diverse retail mix for the area."

Savills retail planning, environmental impact and retail warehousing teams co-ordinated and prepared the Environmental Statement, Retail Impact/Sequential Assessment and technical planning submission. Furthermore the teams studied the best retail mix and potential tenant line up, and gave expert witness evidence on all these matters.

A CGI of how the Southend United Football Club will look