Millionaire Terry Brady says building on the new state-of-the art stadium for Swindon Town could start as early as next summer now the council has given the go- ahead for development on the Front Garden.

The chairman of the club said he had a tense evening on Thursday waiting for the news of the council's decision on the Front Garden.

Although he was unable to make the meeting because he was hosting a Labour party dinner in London, he had people in the council chamber who phoned him as soon as the decision was made.

"I was getting pretty tense watching the clock," said the printing tycoon.

"It got to eight, then nine, then 10. I didn't relax until I got the phone call after midnight to say the proposal had gone through.

"When I found out I was completely elated. I slept pretty soundly on Thursday night."

Councillors voted to approve the Wiltshire Structure Plan, which includes provision for 3,800 homes on the land between Swindon and the M4 motorway.

The decision is a boost to the football club's plans to build on an adjoining piece of land to the west opposite Blagrove, near the motorway's junction 16.

When it is finally built, the planned £35m development will not only include a stadium with seating for around 32,000 but also other leisure facilities such as an indoor snow dome, a multi-screen cinema, hotel and conference centre, and athletics pitches.

"This development will be great news for Swindon Town and for the town of Swindon," he said.

"If everything goes smoothly without the plans being spoilt by anyone, I think by the later part of next summer we could see the first spade going into the ground."

One man who has given his support to the idea of a stadium, but not to general development, is the chairman of the Front Garden Action Group, Terry King.

He said he was pleased that the vote on Thursday finally confirmed each councillor's stance on the Front Garden.

He said: "The Labour councillors showed their true colours. Not one of them has a ward on the Front Garden and they have shown that they just couldn't care less about the area.

"Some of the Conservatives who have accused me of nimbyism in the past have shown they themselves will do anything to prevent developing land in their own wards.

"The ones who voted for the structure plan are hypocrites. All they were doing was protecting their own interests and their own wards. They wanted development in Swin-don, as long as it wasn't in their wards."

Mr King says he will now write to John Prescott and says he has six points on which the council has acted against Government guidelines.

He has also pledged that if the Government does not intervene to stop the development on the Front Garden, then FRAG is willing to take the council to the High Court.

"I am confident this is not the end of the fight for the Front Garden," he said. "The action group will not just lie down and see this development happen."