Funding to further improve Colchester's Community Stadium's overall sustainability has been approved by Colchester Cabinet.

The Council have worked with Inspire East, which champions the creation of high quality places to live, work and visit in the East of England, to measure how sustainable the Community Stadium is.

The project rated very highly against its Sustainability Excellence Framework in areas such as transport, environment, economy and social standards.

This is due to proposals for a Match Day Travel Plan to maximise the use of public transport and reduce single occupancy car travel and what the stadium will offer to the community.

More recent additions by the designers of features such as air source heat pumps have added to the high environmental standards achieved.

Contractors Barr Ltd are now at a stage where they can offer to incorporate further measures to make the stadium even more sustainable.

By releasing money from the Capital Programme the Cabinet can ensure that any opportunities that are taken are not only affordable, but also make efficiencies on energy costs in the long-term.

Areas of sustainability that will be suggested to the Cabinet include; rain water harvesting, sustainable drainage and a wind turbine, along with plans to involve local community groups in some form of community art projects.

Councillor Brian Jarvis, Portfolio Holder for Planning and Regeneration said; "We want to make every effort possible to ensure the Colchester Community Stadium project is as sustainable as possible.

"We have worked with the contractors every step of the way to ensure this.

"However, we are now at a stage where we can go beyond this and start to implement environmental features that will give further green credentials to the project.

"By reviewing what opportunities are available to us we can ensure that any measures we take are not only feasible, but any green initiatives we take on will make a difference in our impact to the environment."

As with all Cabinet decisions this is now subject to a five day call in period.