NEGOTIATIONS over the new Southend United football stadium have stopped after the club and its financial backer failed to reach a “satisfactory agreement”.

British Land has told the Echo the talks are “currently on hold” over the new stadium at Fossetts Farm as terms with the Blues and chairman Ron Martin have not been finalised.

Mr Martin told the Echo that he hoped, come the end of the summer, the club would be better placed to continue discussions.

It is the latest setback for the project, which has been more than 15 years in the pipeline. And it comes more than a month after the club lodged its latest planning application with Southend Council planners.

The company has told the Echo talks may resume at a later date.

A spokesman for British Land said yesterday: “Discussions are currently on hold between British Land and Southend United Football Club as it has not been possible to reach a satisfactory agreement. Southend United has recently submitted a planning application for the development.

“The parties remain on good terms and discussions in relation to the retail element of the scheme may be progressed in the future if a satisfactory planning consent is granted.”

Planning applications are usually rubber-stamped and made public within days of being submitted but there has been no sign of the proposals, which were submitted at the end of April.

Mr Martin confirmed negotiations with British Land had temporarily halted - and might not resume until the autumn.

He said: “This is correct in so far as the club’s priority is to deliver the planning consent both Southend United and British Land require. When we have a line of sight through the planning process, hopefully around the end of September, we will be better placed to continue those discussions.

“In the meantime the parties remain regular dialogue as we both monitor progress by the council.”

The bid to build a new stadium at Fossetts Farm in Eastern Avenue, Southend, has rumbled on for more than a decade.

The deal initially hinged on finding a backer to buy the existing Roots Hall site. Sainsbury’s, which had planned to build a large supermarket on the site, later backed out. Weston Homes eventually bought the site last year and plans to build more than 600 homes there when the Blues move to their new stadium.

It is unclear what is holding up the planning process for the latest application.

A council spokesman said: “In general terms, if a submitted application is complete then national guidelines say that it should be registered (validated) within ten days.

"A complete application includes a number of things, including a location plan, site plan, the correct fee and a design and access statement.

"If an application is incomplete, we liaise directly with the applicant and validation will depend on when they come back to us with the necessary information and meet the requirements to make it a complete application.

“It is not our policy to give details as to why an application has not been validated as this is a matter between an applicant and ourselves.”

The club wants to build a 21,000-seater stadium at Fossetts Farm, along with flats and retail and leisure outlets including a multi-screen cinema. A rival development at the Seaway car park, off Lucy Road, has already secured Empire Cinemas to operate there - calling into question whether the club can attract another cinema chain for the town.