Forest Green Rovers fans will be hoping for an early Christmas present when their plans for a new stadium go before Stroud District Council planners for a second time on December 18.

The plans, which were recommended for approval by council planning officers were then turned down by the council's development control committee at a controversial meeting on June 12.

After that refusal Ecotricity founder and Rovers chairman Dale Vince blasted the decision on social media, saying that "we have to put this right and fight this ridiculous decision."

Mr Vince has since launched an appeal to that decision, but that may not be needed if the committee approve the plans on December 18.

A meeting of the development control committee has been scheduled for that date, with no agenda yet published.

However, a Stroud District Council spokesman confirmed to Punchline that the application is expected to be heard at the December 18 meeting.

The plans, which were refused by the council's development control committee in June, were resubmitted by the club with a few minor amendments in August.

Documents for the resubmitted application show that it is essentially the same plan as before, with one minor amendment.

That will see one of the two practise and training pitches included as part of the development changed to an all-weather surface.

In the letter accompanying the revised application, the club said: "This change was made in order to enable use of the pitch by local football clubs, thereby directly addressing the lack of sports provision within the district."

The plans are for an initial 5,000 seat stadium, made largely from wood and designed by world-renowned architects Zaha Hadid.

The stadium would have potential to be expanded without altering the footprint of the initial build.

The original plans submitted by Ecotricty were for both the stadium and a green technology park on either side of the A419.

Those plans were altered in 2017 to include just the stadium, to the north of the A419 and removing the planned green technology park.