Your official Cardiff City website can confirm that the council today have passed all three applications in relation to retail planning for the new stadium.

Chief Executive David Temme has expained to us exactly what this means:

"Our new stadium relies heavily on cross funding from the adjacent retail and residential developments and indeed the project could not go ahead without the financial input from these commercial elements.

"Originally we applied in a general way for a bulky goods retail park and over the last year or so the retail developer (Capital & Regional) has been trying to attract retailers to our scheme.

"The market is very competitive and there is a lot of choice in Cardiff but after considerable time, cost and effort they have secured retailers. In turn, however, those retailers had specific requirements in relation to their proposed units.

"As a consequence the general planning consent had to be refined and whilst this still relates to large unit "out of town" shopping (with non City centre retailers) several new applications had to be submitted. Each of these required new studies, justification and legal agreements to ensure that the original intent agreed between the Council and the Club would be maintained.

"This has taken a long time but we now have consents that meet the requirements of these particular tenants and this will enable Capital & Regional to enter into formal leases with the retailers concerned. When they have completed these pre-lets and the judicial review period has expired they will buy the retail land from the Council and our new stadium development can start.

"For our part we still have a great deal to do. We need to get Council approval of our business plan which, for the record, was first submitted to the Council almost two and a half years ago. Since that time and because it is a dynamic model that changes with costs and the value of receipts it has been revised several times although we believe that the latest revision should now be acceptable to everyone concerned. We must also finalise the contractors and the designs but with further hard work and a fair wind we should start construction in May of this year with completion of our stadium about 18 months later.

"This may seem a slow process but let me assure you Sam is pressing as hard as he can (and then some!!) and to him speed is vital so that he can continue his football dream for Cardiff City. It will take time - as he has always said - but we have started and on we go .........."

David Temme Chief Exec

We will bring you further developments and reaction as it comes in. Congratulations to all for their hard work. Come on City !!

Discuss this with fellow fans now on our official forum - click above. The best will be included on this website

Please Note: any organisations planning to use any content or quotes from any of our articles are expected to clearly reference the Official Cardiff City Website ( www.cardiffcityfc.co.uk ), including links when used online.