Croydon planists have given their approval and recommend planning permission for the Selhurst Park expansion scheme. Now it's up to the council to agree in next week's vote.

As you may remember, back in January the planning committee in Croydon weren't entirely on board with the Crystal Palace stadium expansion plan. The new west stand was criticised for aesthetics and several other concerns.

Revised plans were thus submitted by the football club in February and yesterday the official planning report recommended approval of the plan by the borough council. Croydon council will meet on Thursday (Apr 19) to vote on the £100-million project.

Traditionally it's considered that fruitful consultation process and positive report from the planists should result in approval by the council. And in the case of Crystal Palace consultation seems to have gone quite strongly in favour of the scheme. Massive 4,444 letters of support were sent, compared to 84 voices of opposition.

The project seeking to increase capacity of Selhurst Park beyond 34,000 by addition of a new west stand also has the support of Greater London Authority, conditioned on successful relocation of families living closest to the stadium.

From today onwards you can see how the KSS Group design of Selhurst Park has evolved from its initial form in 2017 to the current one. We've uploaded renderings, elevations and plans of the stadium from official planning documentation.

Should the expansion be approved by the council, we can expect construction to begin no later than after the 2018/19 season, so in just over a year. By August of 2020 the new 5-floor structure should be operational. However, if the council refuses to grant permission, delivery in 2020 will already be impossible due to time needed for additional proceedings.