Luton Borough Council has approved Luton Town FC’s plans to build a new 25,000-capacity stadium in the heart of the town centre.
It would more than double the capacity of the current ground in Kenilworth Road, where the club has played for almost 120 years.
The hybrid planning application includes the new stadium, an adjacent hotel and a music venue in Power Court within a wider 20-acre site owned by 2020 Developments, Luton Town FC’s development company, which will also have 1,200 apartments and commercial areas.
The Hatters received planning approval in 2019 for a 23,000-seat stadium. However, the designs changed to accommodate more fans after the club was promoted to the Premier League in 2023.
A separate planning application pending approval seeks to re-route the central part of the River Lea within a new culvert that would run parallel to St Mary’s Road. The river would then be daylighted outside the red line boundary to create areas for public use within the centre of Luton.
The planning statement presented to the council’s planning committee in September was prepared by WSP. The design team includes Aecom, sports architect SI.SA, and Klaska and Trivandi.
Other companies in the project team include AKT II, Max Fordham, Buro Happold and Atkins Realis.
2020 Developments’ chief operating officer, Michael Moran, said: “Having already secured outline planning consent in 2019, we have worked through a complete redesign of the stadium concept alongside bringing forward the wider site where we are busy now with groundworks and putting the necessary infrastructure in place.”
