Demolition of the Plough End at Stonebridge Road has been put back to September.

The old terrace was due to come down over the summer to make way for a larger stand and hotel at that end of the ground.

If it had, capacity would have been down to 2,600 when Ebbsfleet hosted Maidstone in the opening week of the National League season.

But the Plough End will stay up for the Fleet’s first few games back in non-league’s top flight.

Vice-chairman Peter Varney said: "When you get the planning consent there are certain conditions to satisfy and agreements to reach with not only the franchise, which is Holiday Inn Express, but also the hotel management company.

"Those are now close to being concluded and it looks likely that it will start at the beginning of September.

"The first thing that will be done is the terracing because we’re mindful all the time of the capacity.

"It’s also likely there will be some improvements done to the Swanscombe End in order that we can get the terrace capacity up.

"At the moment, it’s 759 and yet it can take more people. It can’t because of issues with the foundations and the crash barriers but we’re addressing those.

"Hopefully a combination of the two, come next year, will get us up to the capacity we need to be at (4,000)."

So did the release of the fixtures, and an early clash with Maidstone, have a bearing on the decision?

"Not really," said Mr Varney. "Whatever programme you have, sooner or later it’s going to be affected. The capacity of the new Plough End will be 1,750 so we’re upping it by about 1,200.

"On November 11 we’ve got Leyton Orient and Tranmere will come here with a lot of fans (on September 16) and Hartlepool (on November 25) so at some stage, it was going to have an impact.

"What we need to do is make sure we’ve got one eye on the March 31 deadline so we’re meeting the ground criteria.

"On the one hand we’re making the stadium much better but on the other, we’ve got that pressure from the governing body to make sure it’s done by certain dates."

Fleet’s gates are bound to rise significantly given several clubs will bring large travelling support.

Mr Varney said: "We’ll be able to segregate the Swanscombe End, so is it a team that’s coming that’s likely to bring 1,500 or can it be split into two 750s?

"The big thing for us is to make sure we get the terracing work done, whichever end we’re doing, as soon as we can as part of the contracts we’re entered into.

"It makes the contract slightly more complicated because that’s not always how the builder would like to build it.

"They don’t want to be building terracing and then a hotel afterwards, they want to be doing the whole thing but that’s where we are."