Forest Green Rovers 'Eco Park' stadium designers invited

An application for the £100m plans was submitted in January

A football club is inviting designs for a new "sustainable" stadium which has been included in a proposed £100m "Eco Park" in Gloucestershire.

Forest Green Rovers' chairman Dale Vince wants to move the club from Nailsworth near Stroud to 100 acres of land at junction 13 of the M5.

The stadium will be the centrepiece of a sports and green technology business park, the National League club said.

A planning application for the development was submitted in January.

'Sustainable construction'

Mr Vince, who also owns energy firm Ecotricity, said it was holding a competition for architects to provide "radical, fan-focused stadium designs".

"Sustainability will be key: we expect that to run through the core of the design, as through a stick of rock," he added.

"There are two aspects of that sustainability - first, it's about sustainable construction, in terms of the material used, and second, it's about the long term operational stability of the stadium."

The competition will include three shortlist stages and will be overseen by the Frank Whittle Partnership which also helped manage the building of the nearby M5 Gloucester Services.

The winning design will be unveiled in September, the club said.