SAINTS have submitted new plans to transform their main training ground.

The club has ditched the scheme approved earlier this year and come up with “bigger and better” proposals to upgrade the Staplewood facility in Marchwood.

Council chiefs are being asked to approve what the club describes as a “football development and support centre” on the site.

As reported yesterday, the scheme includes a new spectator stand, a revised pitch layout, a security lodge and a maintenance store, plus access and car parking facilities.

The application comes just ten months after councillors supported the club’s previous proposal for a state-of-the-art complex at the ground.

Plans to bulldoze the existing buildings, excluding the dome, and replace them with a new two-storey complex were approved in January.

The scheme included a medical centre, a players lounge and offices for coaching and administrative staff, plus a media and player briefing room.

New Forest District Council has only just received the new application and is still studying the details.

A council spokesman told the Daily Echo: “The proposed development is a bit bigger and more modernistic than the previous proposal.

“Saints have looked at other clubs of a similar nature, seen what their training academies consist of and incorporated some of those features into their own design.

“They would say that new scheme is bigger and better than the earlier one.”

The spokesman said the application was likely to be debated by the council’s planning and development control committee in February.

Councillor Fred White, chairman of Marchwood Parish Council, welcomed the new scheme but called for extra car parking.

He said: “The proposed new building is much more attractive than the previous one. However, I have considerable reservations about the parking facilities.”

Cllr White also stressed the need for improvements to be carried out to the road outside the ground.