FRESH plans are being worked on at “break-neck speed” to upgrade Roots Hall and add an additional 500 homes to plans for Fossetts Farm.

After a deal was agreed in principle for a consortium led by Jason Rees to take over the football club, it has been revealed that a fresh planning application for the renovation of the dilapidated stadium is set to be submitted as a matter of urgency. 

With the Blues now set to remain at Roots Hall, off Victoria Avenue, it is understood plans will be put together for the 500 homes proposed for the stadium to be moved to Fossetts Farm. 

This will take the grand total of homes at the Fossetts Farm site, near Waitrose in Southend, to 1,400 homes and the plans for a new stadium removed. 

Southend Council, which helped seal the deal with Southend United chairman Ron Martin and the new consortium, said it would continue to ensure a smooth path for the club and planning permission is expected to be granted inside the next nine months. 

Tony Cox, leader of the council, said: “There will have to be a cabinet decision like there was originally because it does alter the plan, not dramatically but it will need to be a cabinet decision. There will also need to be planning permission given for the Fossetts development. The homes were dependent on the stadium being built at Fossetts so there has got to be a new planning consent given.

“I’m presuming the consortium are going to waste no time in putting in planning permission for upgrades of stands in the very near future and also when they sell off the land that’s got permission for housing, as that planning permission has expired, they will want to come back with that as well.”

A small parcel of land, on the periphery of Roots Hall, could be potentially sold to a developer and homes built, the council leader understands.  Original planning permission for homes to be built at Roots Hall has expired, and fresh applications will need to be submitted.

Because planning consent has been given for 900 homes at Fossetts Farm and groundwork has begun on the scheme, it is not expected to take long to alter the planning agreement.

Mr Cox added: “We’re in for a whole raft of planning consents to be approved. We’re looking at six to nine months for planning consent to be given because you’ve got the statutory time periods which you have to give. So about six to nine months if it’s done at break-neck speed and I’m expecting that to happen.”