Consultation is key moving forward for Ebbsfleet United as they count down towards work starting on the new Northfleet Harbourside development.

Outline planning permission was granted by Gravesham Borough Council at the end of April, giving the green light to a project that came into the public limelight with a series of consultations among Fleet fans and local residents.

Ebbsfleet chief executive Damian Irvine has always adopted an open approach to outside views during his time in Kent.

“It's going to ramp up even more now,” confirmed Mr Irvine. “While we got our consultation very in-depth early on, the main key was to get everyone’s feedback on whether they wanted this to go ahead in some sort of capacity, whether or not they agreed with the new precinct and stadium build because they are our people and our community.

“That consultation was very strong and the feedback into the council through the process has been overwhelmingly supportive so that’s one part of it.

“Now the consultation will really ramp us as how we build this stadium will be very fan-driven in terms of what we see and want in there. It’s not just an 8,000-seater bowl, just a prefab thing.

“We want to ensure we have the right amount of safe standing, the right bathroom facilities, sensory rooms, accessible facilities, the right bars in the right places for our supporters. This is a very big part of the consultation and we’ll be relying very heavily on our supporters to tell us what they want it to look like and guide that.

“The same goes for every building in the precinct, the local community will have feedback on every design code and every feature, and they’ll be able to submit their feelings into the council process on every particular building that’s going in there. It’s a massive scheme and there’s a lot of approvals to come but the consultation will be at the forefront of that.”

It’s already been a time-consuming project for Mr Irvine, who also holds the director of football role at Stonebridge Road. But it’s essential to ensure Ebbsfleet’s long-term sustainability amidst a current backdrop of regular seven-figure annual losses.

On the project so far, Mr Irvine added: “It's been very in-depth. It’s been a consistent and expensive task over the last two years.

“We’ve attracted the investment behind all this to the club and the specifics behind that will be announced in the near future. But it’s exciting international investment that we’ve attracted.

“We’ve borne the burden of the high level of costs for them to get to this stage where there’s been a planning approval. That’s just two years of full-time, a number of consultants and surveys and very deep report.

“That report was 158 pages long so that gives you an idea of the council work into this as well in collating the required amount of information so a massive task, but one that’s very much worth it.

“The big issue around the football club since way before I arrived four years ago and ongoing has been the year-on-year losses. We’re not Robinson Crusoe there, we’re not the only football club that loses money every year.

“But for us to compete at a level the fans want us to compete at, and we should compete at, the football club doesn’t and won’t ever earn enough money through gate receipts and sponsorships to break even.

“So, we need to change that cycle, it’s been the number one goal and it doesn’t just happen overnight with a click of the fingers and it doesn’t always go to plan. Some years you lose more money than you wanted to and you’ve got to get back on track. But we’ve always had that driving factor to get that loss down and down.

“What this does on approval straight away, is it raises our property value substantially on the balance sheet and it also allows the future of the football club to compete at a League 1, League 2, National League level [by] making money elsewhere in its assets which will be a freehold stadium.

“We won’t just be relying on the season ticket holders and supporters every week to fund the playing budget and that’s nirvana in terms of where we need to be.”

Mr Irvine reiterated, however, that the green light for the overall scheme is just the start.

There’s still plenty of work ahead and the detail of each individual part of the Northfleet Harbourside scheme will need to get approved in due course.

“All this is, is a ticket to the dance, really,” said Mr Irvine. “It’s an overarching approval of the concept, the number of buildings and what we want to do here.

“But, and this should create some comfort for locals and the people of Gravesham as well, there still needs to be a design approval process and a building application process for each of the buildings.

“That’s where things like road names and local heritage and the design features of each building and the planning codes are fed into the council system and approved.

“We still have to do all of that but what this means now is we have a viable scheme. It means we can unlock investment to make this happen as know there will be a scheme on this place.”