Bosses at Southend United insist "substantial progress" is being made on the proposed stadium development as a number of amendments are being made to the plans.

The club has planning permission for the new stadium and new training ground facilities at Fossetts Farm in Southend with hundreds of new homes.

The new amended plans will include: reducing the overall capacity of the seating bowl from 21,000 to 17,000 Amend the west stand to create our version of the “Kop End” with safe standing and increase the commercial space throughout the first phase of the stadium.

Club bosses say the changes will enhance revenue generating opportunities for the Club, both on matchdays and non-match days and provide a much-improved supporter experience and better atmosphere.

A spokesman said: "Substantial progress has been made towards our goal to move to a new stadium where we can become a self-sustaining business, capable of competing through the leagues, something that is not possible at Roots Hall without further, unsustainable investment.

"A capacity of 17,000 is substantially more than Bournemouth and on par with Brentford, both teams have shown themselves to be well capable of competing towards the top end of the football pyramid. Our aim is to provide an infrastructure to enable us to emulate the success that teams such as these have had.

"The commercial areas will include a range of Bars, Restaurants, the Club Shop, Ticket Office and Conferencing and Banqueting space. In addition to the Supporter’s Bar in the South Stand, we will have a large bar area in the West Stand (with music and entertainment) and we will have great food offerings throughout. Indeed, we are using this opportunity to carefully plan the detail of the various food and beverage offerings and hope to share some exciting proposals soon.

"All in all, the planned commercial space will help us move from a 30 day a year business to something approaching a 365 day a year business. The new stadium will be game changing - the Club’s future is bright."