Zaha Hadid’s stadium for Forest Green Rovers finally wins approval

Forest Green Rovers’ plans for a new 5,000-seat wooden stadium designed by Zaha Hadid Architects have finally been approved. Stroud district council backed the scheme last night after refusing it planning permission last summer.

The scheme is part of a £100m Eco Park development close to the M5 in Gloucestershire masterminded by the League Two side’s chairman Dale Vince. As well as the stadium, it will include parking and two pitches, one of which will be 4G and available to the local community.

Ridge led the planning team ahead of the approval.

The plans will see the club, which was founded in 1889 and has been described by Fifa as the world’s greenest football club, leave its home at The New Lawn, in Nailsworth near Stroud, and move to Eastington, next to J13 of the M5.

Opponents of the plan had said they were worried about noise, traffic and the impact on the local community, but the council’s planning committee voted six to four in favour of the scheme.

Vince, who owns the green electricity company Ecotricity, said the right decision had finally been made and that, if construction were to begin soon, the stadium could be completed within three years.