Aberdeen's plans to move into a new Kingsford stadium have been boosted after being given the all-clear by the Scottish Government.
The Dons saw the proposed move to a new 20,000-seater stadium approved by the city council in January, but there were still fears it could be knocked back.
The club plan to leave their Pittodrie home and move to a new £50million development, which includes training facilities, in Kingsford, but faced objections from the Aberdeenshire Council.
However in a statement released on Tuesday, the Aberdeen City Council announced that the Government would not be stepping in to reject the application.
A statement read: "The Scottish Government has written to Aberdeen City Council to say it is not going to call in the Kingsford stadium planning decision, leaving it for the council to determine the planning application.
"The Scottish Government said in the notification that the issues raised by the Aberdeenshire Council 'are not of national significance to have bearing' on the decision not to call it in.
"The notification further said the Scottish Government expects Aberdeen City Council to have regard to the matters raised by Aberdeenshire Council.
"We will accordingly consider these matters and liaise with colleagues at Aberdeenshire Council on these matters as necessary."
Aberdeen chairman Stewart Milne added: "We welcome the Scottish Government's confirmation that Aberdeen City Council can proceed to determine our planning application. We are keen to begin construction of the community and training facilities as soon as possible.
"The next step is to progress the terms of the legal agreement with Aberdeen City Council and work with all stakeholders on agreeing and meeting the conditions.
"We will continue to work with the City, Aberdeenshire Council and the community in the lead up to and during construction.
"Together, we can deliver a first-class facility to be proud of that will unlock the potential of the club, the trust and the next generation of football stars, while making a positive contribution to the local economy."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel