PLANS for an £8m activity park have been approved, but a football club says a new stadium should be included in the scheme.

Kent County Council’s (KCC) designs for a 46-hectare community sports venue on land between the old and new A2 were permitted by its planning department earlier this month.

It will include a cycle track, skateboarding facilities, a play area, a pavilion with training facilities, and will be able to host triathlons and horseriding events.

However, the board of Ebbsfleet United say the plans should include a new 8,000 seater stadium for the football club.

Chairman Duncan Holt said: “A new stadium is crucial to our advancement. I’m sure if the local population were asked what they would prefer, a community stadium or a cycling park, the answer would be a stadium.

“I'm sure if they were asked would they like to have the option of both, they would be over the moon.”

Mr Holt says the club’s board have put together a proposal which is “a win-win situation for the local people and for KCC” and “hope a way forward can be worked out".

However, KCC’s project manager of the activity park Laurence Tricker says Ebbsfleet United has not put forward any workable proposals to the council.

He also said consultation into the activity park had found residents were worried about the noise it would generate, and a football stadium would cause even more and therefore be unpopular.

Ebbsfleet attracts an average of 1,300 fans to home games at its 5,258 capacity stadium in Stonebridge Road, Northfleet.

However around 24,000 supporters watched the side win the FA Trophy at Wembley in May 2008.

Head of the Supporters’ Trust Jessica McQueen said: “A new stadium will add to the profile of the club, town and county.

“There is nothing in this country that brings profile and pride to an area the way a successful football club does.”