PLANS to provide a permanent control room will go ahead at Accrington Stanley in spite of the ground’s overall redevelopment falling through.

The club has submitted a planning application to build a £20,000 facility for police to oversee match days which is said to be ‘similar’ to phase one of original plans for a £1.2million ground redevelopment.

The new control room, to be be funded by the club, will be sited in the corner of the away stand and is necessary for the club’s safety certificate and football league status.

It will replace the current portable cabin facility, first installed as a stopgap measure in 2006 and which has only temporary planning permission.

Bosses at the club had originally planned to seek funding for a larger revamp which would also have included new changing rooms and redeveloping the car park.

They however decided not to apply for Local Enterprise Growth Initiative - or LEGI - funding, as it would see them ‘tied down’ to the Crown ground for too many years.

Chief Executive Rob Heys said: “The temporary cabin meets requirements for now, but what we really need is a permanent structure and is the first priority.

“We are trying to get away from the old way of ‘make do and mend’ by providing a facility that will look a lot better and will be more suitable for its purpose.

"In the future we would like to go further and provide new toilets, changing rooms and first aid rooms but the first step was to focus on this as a priority.”