Northampton Town FC chair David Cardoza has said plans to redevelop the club’s Sixfields Stadium are “the biggest thing which has ever happened to the club.”

A planning application was submitted on 10 October, with the plans including an expanded west stand and a complete redevelopment of the east stand, with new corporate boxes and a conference centre.

If planning permission is granted, work could begin as early as February 2014 andwould give Sixfields a capacity of 10,000.

The stadium expansion is part of a wider scheme to build a hotel, gym and 300 homes in the area surrounding the ground.

Northampton Borough Council is loaning the football club £12m to allow the redevelopment to go ahead with a deal to acquire the land around Sixfields agreed last week.