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Liverpool's Anfield expansion approved

The proposed expansion would see Anfield's capacity expand to 58,000 © Getty Images

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Liverpool have moved a step closer to expanding Anfield stadium after a planning application was approved unanimously by the city's council.

Proposals to raise the stadium's capacity to 58,800 by adding more than 13,000 seats were passed at a meeting at Liverpool Town Hall.

The club plan to put in an extra 8,500 seats by adding an extra tier to the main stand, with work expected to start before the end of the season, with the aim of completing it by August 2016.

In addition, the Anfield Road End will be expanded to allocate an additional 4,800 seats, with documents produced earlier this year by Liverpool City Council suggesting that work could be completed in 2018.

The approval of the plans has removed a significant major barrier to work beginning on the new stands. There will now be a six-week consultation period, during which potential legal challenges to the council's decision can be submitted.

Nearby residents did raise objections to the plans at Tuesday's meeting, arguing that the area around the stadium will suffer as a result.

They criticised the manner in which the club and council have bought up houses backing on to the ground in order to demolish them for expansion, and raised concerns about the effect an increased capacity would have on traffic in the Anfield area on matchdays.

Preliminary work has already started on the project, with developers having knocked down a number of homes on Lothair Road, which runs directly behind the main stand.

The expansion of the stadium is part of a £260 million programme - a partnership between the football club, the council and local social housing group Your Housing - to regenerate the Anfield area of Liverpool.

It was first announced in October 2012, when Liverpool's American owners Fenway Sports Group confirmed their intention to re-develop the ground rather than push ahead with plans for a new stadium in neighbouring Stanley Park.

The development will mark the first significant expansion of Anfield since the Centenary Stand replaced the old Kemlyn Road Stand in 1992, although the Kop and Anfield Road stands were also rebuilt during the 1990s.

Liverpool first went public with plans for further expansion in 1999. Then-chairman David Moores was reluctant to risk the club's future by taking out a £200m loan to pay for the redevelopment, though, instead deciding to find a buyer with the funds to do so.

That resulted in American businessmen Tom Hicks and George Gillett buying the club and attempting to pursue the Stanley Park stadium, but they did not have the money to fund the plan and were eventually forced to sell Liverpool to Fenway Sports Group in October 2010 as debts mounted.

John W Henry, who has been the club's principal owner since then, has always preferred the idea of remaining at Anfield, and made clear during the planning application process that the money is in place to pay for the stadium expansion.

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