Ebbsfleet United are concerned that delays to their redevelopment of Stonebridge Road could impact the atmosphere at some of this season’s biggest games.

Work to transform the stadium at a cost of around £8million should have started earlier this summer but Fleet are now set to start their National League South campaign in unchanged surroundings in four weeks’ time.

On April 8, the club were granted full planning permission for the redevelopment of the Liam Daish Stand but almost 50 conditions applied to that have frustrated them.

Archaeological issues – being dealt with by Kent County Council – are causing Ebbsfleet the biggest headaches and vice-chairman Peter Varney admits there is bound to be a knock-on effect when football returns to Stonebridge Road next month.

He said: "It’s now getting closer to the start of the season and I’ve got to have one eye on the impact of that on the team, support and everything else around the club.

"Our aspiration was that, for lots of reasons, we wanted to get the stand demolished, the ground levelled, the piles in, the steel superstructure up and all the terracing done in the nice weather.

"We didn’t want to be doing it in the rainy season because that slows everything down and it’s disruptive not only from a contractual point of view but from a financial point of view.

"This isn’t the first time I’ve done this and normally, you’re in a position to go in a relatively short period of time but here we are coming up to July 8, three months later, and we haven’t had a single spade in the ground."

The new main stand, adjacent to Stonebridge Road, will go up at a cost of £3.5m – but not for a while yet. And having that side of the ground out of action when the diggers finally move in will undoubtedly cause major disruption.

Mr Varney said: "Most of our support is in that area so our aspiration was to get the superstructure up, the terracing, the seats and be able to use it.

"We had an agreement with a contractor, that it would be handed over – which worked quite well at Charlton – and then we could use the seats, so you maintain the atmosphere.

"This is a season when we’ve got Dartford, Margate, Maidstone, some big games and that side (of the ground) can hold the most of our capacity.

"Financial is one issue and that’s damaging but it’s not so much the financial as the atmosphere and the support that would give the team.

"We are totally reliant on the council’s timescale so it’s not in our hands," Mr Varney added.

"The big area of archaeology still remains unresolved and until we get these conditions discharged by the council, we’re not able to start work.

"The new stand will be built but we wanted the bulk of the dirty work to be done in the summer and that’s not been possible."