Decision due on football club's new stadium plans

A football club's plan to build a new 5000-capacity stadium on a council-owned site is set to be approved.

Maidenhead United wants to use land at Braywick Park, owned by the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead (RBWM), for a new stadium.

The club have played at York Road since 1871, which is thought to be the oldest senior football ground in the world to be continually used by the same club.

The plans are set to be approved in principle by RBWM's cabinet on Tuesday evening.

An initial £2m lump sum that the club would pay on the completion of a 999-year lease would be spent in the Braywick Park area, council papers show.

RBWM says the money would be used for expanding Braywick Nature Centre, as well as refurbishing Braywick Park's athletics track.

It said it would also look to extend the lease for Maidenhead Rugby Club "to enable investment and long-term security".

On Tuesday the council's cabinet is set to prepare and bring to full council, subject to finalisation of the lease, a capital bid for investments in Braywick Park.

The first pictures of how the new stadium might look were released by the club earlier this month.

In January the council agreed to carry out a public open space consultation in order to progress the proposals, which the club called a "key milestone".

Documents for the plans show 148 objections to the project were received by the council during the consultation.

Among those were concerns about loss of open space in Braywick Park and other issues including traffic and the impact on park users.

The meeting will take place at 18:00 BST at York House in Windsor.