Application no: 20150081 Location: The PHB Stadium, Ebbsfleet United Football Club Ltd Stonebridge Road Northfleet Gravesend DA11 9GN Description: Hybrid planning application (part outline and part full detailed) for the proposed phased demolition of existing stands, ancillary buildings and structures and erection of new Stonebridge Road Stand (Phase 1 - full detailed) and erection of Plough End, Town End and Swanscombe End Stands with associated access and parking (Phase 2 - outline with all matters except layout reserved). Applicant: Ebbsfleet United Football Club Decision Level: Planning Regulatory Board Recommendation Permission with Conditions and Informatives Draft recommended conditions will be set out in a supplementary report 1. Site Description 1.1 The site comprises the Ebbsfleet United Football Ground currently known as the PHB Stadium in Stonebridge Road, Northfleet situated in an industrial/commercial location near the western edge of the Borough. 1.2 The ground has three stands and an open end at the western end of the ground (Swanscombe end) and there are other areas adjacent to the stands which are also uncovered and open to the elements. 1.3 The Town or main stand on the north side of the pitch, and which contains the changing rooms and offices, is the oldest stand at the ground dating from 1914 and is a partly wooden and partly corrugated iron sheeted structure. 1.4 At present the Stadium holds around 4,532 spectators of which 500 are seated. There is no restriction on ground capacity in planning terms. Average attendances at the ground are considerably lower than this - in the current season (2014/2015) this is around 960. Capacity crowds have though on occasions been attracted, most recently for the Conference play-off final against Dover Athletic at the end of the 2013/14 season which drew an attendance of 4,294 and Ebbsfleet United was the highest attended club in their division for last season. 1.5 The club currently play their fixtures in the Vanarama Conference South division, one league from the Football Conference division and thus two leagues away in the football pyramid from Division 2 of the Football League. The football ground has been in active use for sporting purposes since 1905. 1.6 Gravesend & Northfleet Football Club, as it was previously known, was born as a merger of two existing neighbouring clubs - Gravesend United and Northfleet United in 1946. The club has had a long history with some limited success in the lower divisions outside of the Football League including being within the Football Conference and most notably winning the FA Trophy at Wembley in 2008. In May 2007 the club had changed its name to Ebbsfleet United and in February 2008 had been taken over by an internet venture MyFootballClub.co.uk involving paid members owning the club and voting on decisions. In May 2013, the club was purchased by a Kuwaiti company, KEH Sports Ltd. The Borough Council are however the current landowners of the ground. 1.7 There have been some recent ground improvements including refurbishment of the toilets at the rear of the Town stand. The Stonebridge Road stand (more recently renamed the Liam Daish Stand) originally built in 1959, and which replaced a smaller stand dating from 1920, has also been renovated in the last few years but there are no spectator facilities within that stand. The Town stand, which contains the club office, only has a maximum of two years life while parts of the Plough end stand, built in 1952, are closed due to the dilapidated state of the concrete terracing. The un-covered Swanscombe end terracing was re-terraced to more modern safety standards in 1980. 1.8 There are some limited commercial and corporate facilities within the ground. There is a supporter’s club bar adjacent to and east of the Plough end stand with other facilities including toilets around the ground, a club shop (located in a container), various refreshment kiosks/mobiles, grounds keepers store, a rain water harvesting tank and a sponsor’s lounge (within a portacabin). There is also a portacabin and two containers in the car park within the ground used for storage and maintenance. 1.9 The Stonebridge Road frontage has a number of large advertisement hoardings either on the roadside boundary or just behind the boundary of the ground which is enclosed partly by timber fencing and partly by concrete panel fencing. 1.10 The total site area of the ground as shown in the red line plan is 1.75 hectares (4.4 acres) 1.11 Adjoining uses include:- to the north-west: a terrace of 4 residential properties (64-67 Stonebridge Road) on the A226/Lower Road signalised junction, an area of open land and warehouse units on the Northfleet Industrial Estate; to the north-east: a builder’s merchants and further small industrial units, with an aggregates wharf beyond; to the south-east: a car wash facility and workshop building, with the Ebbsfleet stream underground in culvert and beyond that the former Plough Inn, now a cafe and restaurant; and to the south-west, across the A226: a car dealership, petrol filling station, a retail unit and former furniture warehouse now used as a gymnasium; and the Ebbsfleet Industrial Estate. 1.12 Other nearby residential properties include Railway Street and Wallis Park, Northfleet to the south east of the ground and 70m and 100m away from the ground respectively and Phoenix Court, Swanscombe, 130m to the south west of the ground. 1.13 Vehicular access to the site is from the A226 Stonebridge Road roundabout and from the A226 Stonebridge Road at a point immediately behind the Swanscombe End terracing, some 160 metres to the west. These vehicular access points are also shared by pedestrians entering the football ground via the home and away turnstiles. There are 4 pairs of turnstiles at the home entrance into the ground. Adjacent to the home turnstiles and vehicular entrance is a small brick Southern Water pumping station building, originally a Northfleet UDC building dating from 1932. 1.14 Stonebridge Road is a single carriageway road with one running lane in each direction but has wide 3.0m plus lanes and is subject to a 30mph speed limit. There are footways both sides and the carriageway and footways are lit. There are traffic lights beyond the stadium to the west at the junction of the A226 with Lower Road. 1.15 Part of the open area to the north-west of the football ground is used for car parking on match days and provides parking for approx. 70 cars. The remainder of this open area comprises a fenced compound currently used by Sian Formwork Ltd, civil and construction engineers, including CCS Scaffolding but was once used for further ground car parking and other storage uses. Vehicular access to the football ground and to Sian Formwork is shared in this location. An electricity pylon also occupies a central position within this open area, with a 400KV National Grid power line crossing the site. 1.16 On match days an additional 20 spaces are provided for players at the adjoining Sian Formwork Ltd compound. Some 550 parking spaces are available for spectators at the Ebbsfleet International Station Car Park C which is an approximate 5-10 minutes walking time from the ground. Ebbsfleet International Station and Northfleet station are within walking distance from the ground and provide access to spectators to the national rail network. There are bus stops outside the ground in Stonebridge Road which provide access to a wide range of bus services including Arriva’s Sapphire Bus Route. 1.17 Coaches arriving with either supporters or visiting teams drop off and then park away from the ground. For supporters the coaches park at the Ebbsfleet International Car Park C; for visiting teams that arrive by coach, provision is made within the Club’s parking area. 1.18 The open area to the north-west of the ground occupied by Sian Formwork and for stadium car parking was once allotments. Moreover much of the area now occupied by the football ground was once a clay pit serving a local cement works. Whilst this was restored during the 1890s, there is no record of its depth or the fill material used. It is also understood that the football ground terracing comprises made-ground with concrete steps over. 1.19 The whole of the site is low lying (at 3.0-3.5m AOD) and would be susceptible to flooding (being within the Environment Agency’s Flood Zone 3a) should the Thames flood defences fail or be overtopped during an extreme tidal event. The site could also be affected by flooding from the Ebbsfleet stream during an extreme pluvial event, notwithstanding the fact that the adjoining section is in culvert. 1.20 The site lies within an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) which was designated in 2002 in recognition of existing poor air quality due to high concentrations of particulate matter (PM10s). 2. Planning History 2.1 The use of the Stonebridge Road ground as a football stadium is an historic one, pre- dating the introduction of planning legislation in 1947. 2.2 There is a significant amount of planning history since then. This includes: TH/3/57/084: Erection of turnstiles and entrances. Permitted 6.6.1957 19750853: Outline application for erection of replacement club house. Permitted 30.3.76 19760458: Details of single storey club house. Permitted 30.6.76 19780298: Erection of four 21 metre high floodlight pylons. Permitted 14.4.78 19790482: Construction of new concrete terracing and erection of new covered stand at Swanscombe End erection of men’s wc and new turnstiles and erection of boundary wall to Stonebridge Road.