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Sport

Ebbsfleet United hoping to have new Plough End open to supporters in October or November

By: Steve Tervet

Published: 00:00, 01 June 2017

Ebbsfleet are aiming to have their new Plough End open to supporters by October.

Demolition of the existing stand will begin as soon as minor conditions attached to the planning approval have been met.

Capacity at Stonebridge Road will be significantly reduced while that part of the ground is out of action so vice-chairman Peter Varney knows the club need to move quickly.

Ebbsfleet supporters in the Plough End Picture: Andy Payton

He said: "We’ve got to control this carefully because the capacity goes down to 2,600 when it’s knocked down so we’ve got to look at making sure that terracing is back up quite quickly, which takes us back to 4,350.

"There might be some games when we have to set a capacity crowd depending on which fixtures come out first.

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"Obviously, we’ve got foundations to do but the work, internally, is to make sure that before anything else, the terracing comes back into use. We’re aiming for October/November at the latest.

"This always happens when you develop a stadium. On the one hand you’re making the facilities better and generating revenue, which is what we need to do off the pitch, but at the same time if we get Leyton Orient quite early in a home fixture, it puts us under a bit of pressure.

"I’d like to think we managed the Liam Daish Stand quite well in terms of getting that back soon and getting everybody in there. It’s going to be the same on this
one.

"The priority will be getting the capacity back up, which we have to do under league rules. The same will happen when we do the Swanscombe End."

Club bosses will meet today (Thursday) to discuss how to segregate big games while the Plough End is being redeveloped. Raising capacity of the Swanscombe End terrace is possible but only once essential strengthening work has been carried out.

The National League fixtures are due to be released in the first week of July.

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