Community rugby stadium plans approved for Edinburgh

Plans to build a community rugby stadium on the site of the first ever international rugby match in Edinburgh, Scotland, have been approved.

City of Edinburgh Council gave the green light to the plans, submitted by rugby league club Edinburgh Academicals, which will see a £8m stadium being built in Stockbridge - where an international between Scotland and England was played on 27 March 1871.

Facilities at the 5,000-capacity venue will include a rugby museum, conferencing facilities and nine retail units. The stadium will become the new home for Edinburgh Academicals, who currently play at Raeburn Place.

In a statement, the club said: "This is a significant step towards the new facilities at Raeburn Place and could not have been achieved without the robust and widespread support of club members."

The new stadium will allow Edinburgh Academicals to continue its community rugby programmes, which include organising rugby training for local high schools which do not teach the sport.

The club said that it will now commission detailed designs to be drawn up and will look to launch a tender to find a contractor for the project early next year.

Construction work on the new stadium is set to begin by the end of 2014. For more information on the project, click here for the Edinburgh Academicals website.