A PLANNING application has finally been lodged to build a new football stadium to bring Slough Town back home.

Slough Labour group’s manifesto promise to provide a Slough home for the club - which has been playing in Beaconsfield since 2003 - has taken a step forward.

The council has submitted a planning application to build a new stadium on the old Arbour Vale site, in Stoke Road.

It would be next to a planned new school, Lynch Hill Enterprise Academy. However the sporting facility, which would be open for community use, would still need final sign off from the Government.

Ruth Bagley, chief executive of Slough Borough Council, said: “We’ve been in detailed discussion with the DfE and St Joseph’s School about the uses across the Arbour Vale site and remain very hopeful of achieving consent from the Department for Education (DfE) for sports use on part of the site.

“Meanwhile, to progress matters, both we and the DfE have submitted complementary planning applications, which together redevelop the whole site.” Slough Borough Council originally planned to build the new stadium alongside 80 homes. However the long-awaited development was stalled earlier last year after the Department for Education stepped in to demand the site is used for a new school. It also threatened using legal powers to seize the site, resulting in the council threatening its own legal action.

However after months of tense negotiations Slough council reworked its original plan scrapping planned new homes - and forfeiting a multi-million pound windfall - to make space for a school.

It is now awaiting the final sign off from the Government to use part of the land for sporting facilities. A strip of land at the back of the site will also provide sports facilities for the new school and nearby St Joseph’s.

Slough Town chairman Steve Easterbrook, posting on the club’s website on Friday, wrote: “Amongst other things this will include an artificial pitch and covered seating for a least 250 spectators. The facilities are designed to meet the ground grading requirements of the Southern Premier League with flexibility to expand.

“As everyone knows it has taken the council and indeed the club a long time to get to this position - of course many questions need answering - however, may I request some restraint over the coming weeks as the club works through these with the council.”