Brentford chief executive Mark Devlin believes the Bees' exciting future 'pretty much starts now' after the London Borough of Hounslow approved amendments to the club's new stadium plan.

The west London side hope to start building their new ground in February 2018, once all the relevant paperwork with the council is complete.

The new ground should give Brentford more scope to challenge on a financial level with their Championship rivals and Devlin is excited by the future.

He said: “We're very grateful to the councillors tonight for approving the scheme and the raft of specialists that have worked hard with the club as well as Conor (Hayes) and the rest of the team in getting the scheme to where we are now.

Lionel Road

“Our exciting future pretty much starts now. There's some other process to go through as there always is.

“We very much hope that in the first quarter of 2018 we're going to be able to get on the site and be able to start putting the piling mat down.

“Slowly but surely, fans will start seeing the new stadium rise out of the ground.”

Devlin also paid tribute to the fans, who have backed the club during the long process, which started in earnest in 2011 when Matthew Benham bought the Lionel Road site.

He added: “We've had all the specialists and we've had a good number of fans coming here just to show there's real support for the scheme and we're grateful to everyone involved in this.

Artist's impression of Brentford's Lionel Road development

“It's taken a big number of people to get us here and the fans have played their part.”

The Community Sports Trust, which was central to the scheme, will no longer be housed in the stadium but, instead, will have a dedicated space next door.

Devlin explained: “We think the new scheme will enhance the Community Sports Trust does.

“They're able to use it on matchdays, which might not have been the case had their offices been in the stadium.

“The key thing for us is none of this got in the way of what our Community Sports Trust does.”