A TOWN football club is set to future proof its stadium if planning permission for an improvement scheme is successful.

Founded in 1895, Northallerton Town Football Club is due to submit a planning application for improvements to be made to its home at the Calvert Stadium on Romanby Road..

The plans are expected to be submitted to Hambleton District Council and then the consultation process will begin.

If approved, between £200,000 and £250,000 worth of improvements will be spent on new changing rooms, a lounge for players and officials, new facilities for the junior section and a kit room.

The improvements are part of the club’s pledge to bring the stadium up to a ‘higher’ standard.

In February 2017, Northallerton Town Football Club guaranteed its future at its home for at least a quarter of a century as bosses signed a 25-year lease with stadium’s owner Thirsk-businessman Bill Calvert.

Club chairman Peter Young said: “The existing changing rooms are well past their best and clubs like us are facing increasing demands for better facilities for players, officials and spectators.

“We are ambitious, we want to play at a higher level and have the ground to match.”

The stadium has around 400 standing spaces and 200 seats.

Before their last planning application in 2017, club committee member, Mark Walker said: “We’ve been working on getting a longer-term lease and it’s great this has come to fruition.

“Now we have a 25 year lease granted, it opens up a lot of possibilities. The key issue for us at the moment is the lighting for the ground.”

As part of the improvements, the club has already spent around £50,000 installing new floodlights. Mr Walker added: “We should be able to get some grant funding through different funding sources, but we’ll have to raise some ourselves.”