PLANS to carry out work at Warrington Town Football Club’s Cantilever Park home have been hailed as ‘great news’ as the project was approved.

The development management committee made a decision on the application at its Town Hall meeting on Thursday.

It proposed alterations to the site consisting of the construction of a new stand, toilet block, turnstiles and new catering kiosks.

Toby Macormac, chairman of Warrington Town Football Club, told the committee that the application enables the club to reach a Football Association required criteria ‘for the level of football we now find ourselves at’ – following the recent promotion success which has ‘given our town a football club to be proud of’.

He said: “The recent success has had a large impact not only on the local community, but also the town as a whole, not only from visiting fans assisting local business, but also we found that the health and wellbeing of new support, that we found visitors on matchday, and particularly our younger fans, which we’ve seen an uplift in the 14 to 18 age group, which is great to see.

“And we believe that the changes will also enable the club to become more sustainable.”

Committee member Cllr Brian Gallagher said he thinks it is ‘great news’ for the town and the football club.

He added: “I have no hesitation in moving approval, subject to conditions.”

A report to the committee said the proposals do not increase the overall capacity of the ground, meaning that the proposals ‘would not necessarily increase’ the number of people attending matches, but would provide the ‘necessary infrastructure to comply with the FA requirements for segregation of home and away fans’.

It added: “The seating, access gate, toilets and catering facilities would be located in the area to the west of the football pitch.

“This part of the site is already used as a standing area for spectating during matches with larger attendance.

“The principle of development is acceptable and subject to conditions there would be no unacceptable impacts on visual or residential amenity, nor on the local highway network.”

The application was approved, subject to conditions.