MILDENHALL Town have entered a new era following news that the club are set to move grounds by 2009. Hall are set to leave Recreation Way after Forest Heath District Council, the owner of the land, sold the site to supermarket giant Sainsbury s for alm

MILDENHALL Town have entered a "new era" following news that the club are set to move grounds by 2009.

'Hall are set to leave Recreation Way after Forest Heath District Council, the owner of the land, sold the site to supermarket giant Sainsbury's for almost £7 million.

As part of that deal, Mildenhall will get a new ground, possibly on the outskirts of town.

"It's a great development and a new era," said club chairman Martin Tuck.

"Ever since I've been involved with Mildenhall the theme has been improvement and progress and this continues that."

Although Tuck said there was "no fixed timescale" for the move, he did reveal that: "The initial discussions we had were to have moved in two to two-and-a-half years."

The move will see improved facilities for the club, with possibilities for two new pitches and an all-weather surface.

"This would allow us to base all our youth teams at the same site, rather than being dotted around the schools at Mildenhall, which from a community point-of-view is a great thing," Tuck added.

Tuck said that the club's new location had yet to be decided, and reports that it could be on land near allotments on West Row Road were unconfirmed.

He added: "It would be fair for me to say that I don't want to move out of town but be on the edge of town. We want to be accessible to our supporters."

Plans to apply to go up the league pyramid had been shelved after Forest Heath sold the land.

"We thought that it was pointless spending money on our existing ground when we knew we had this coming up," said Tuck.

"It's been common knowledge around the club for a year so we waited to see how things developed."

Tuck revealed that an application to move up the pyramid would happen once a new site had been found and the club had moved there.

The Suffolk side, which currently plays in the Ridgeons Premier Division, received a further boost with news that Safepac, the club's main sponsors, had agreed a three-year contract extension.

"It's a substantial amount of money which will help towards the new facilities," said Tuck.