Merton Council have granted AFC Wimbledon planning permission for a return to Plough Lane.

The Dons are now set to build a 20,000-seater arena, with an initial capacity of up to 11,000, on the site which is currently home to stock car and greyhound racing.

Chief executive Erik Samuelson was thrilled with the unanimous verdict delivered by a planning committee last night after hours of debate at Merton Civic Centre.

He said: “We are all absolutely delighted. This has been a momentous day for our club and the most important event since we reformed it 13 years ago.

“Following the sale of our former Plough Lane site and the decision by the FA to allow Wimbledon FC’s Football League place to be moved to Milton Keynes, our fans did something unprecedented in the football world – we decided to re-form the club, enter the football hierarchy at the lowest level and repeat what the old Wimbledon FC did with massive success, namely make our way up through the many leagues into the Football League.

How Kingsmeadow has developed in pictures:

“We started with nothing, no team, no stadium, no manager, not even a strip to wear. But what was different this time was that the club was formed by and remains owned by the fans, in other words we are firmly rooted in our community.

“We have never lost sight of that and so we have focused the majority of our community works on Merton because this is our home and we are delighted that we have been granted planning approval to return to Wimbledon.

“On behalf of the club and our supporters, we would like to place on record our thanks to Merton’s councillors who have demonstrated their support for our club and our work by supporting us to come home.”

The next stage of the process will be for AFC Wimbledon shareholders to also give the green light for the sale of Kingsmeadow , where the Dons currently play, to Chelsea FC at the club’s annual general meeting on December 17.

This will be a mere formality given the Dons Trust controls more than 90 per cent of the club’s shares.

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