NORMAN COOK, aka Fatboy Slim, the DJ and Brighton & Hove Albion supporter, knew the news was probably good when he was woken by the ringing of his telephone yesterday morning. “I’m not an early riser, but after my phone had gone off eight times, I figured there was something important happening,” he said.

Indeed there was. John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, had just won himself a place alongside Peter Ward and Bobby Zamora in the affections of Brighton fans everywhere by approving the club’s planning application for a 23,000-seat stadium at Falmer, on the eastern edge of the city.

Since being forced to leave the Goldstone Ground in 1997 after it was sold by a previous board of directors, Brighton played at Gillingham, 75 miles away, for two seasons. They returned to their home city in 1999 to temporary accommodation at Withdean Stadium, but the converted athletics arena holds only 6,700, about a fifth of the number that travelled to the 2004 second division play-off final.

Although Brighton’s original application for the Falmer site was passed 11-1 by the city council in 2002, Prescott called in the plans, then ordered a further review last year to consider possible alternative locations. Yesterday’s announcement declared that the stadium was in the public interest and that there were “no other realistic alternative sites”. “At least he made the right decision eventually,” Cook said.

The club has had to punch well above its financial weight on the field to reach the Coca-Cola Championship and stay there and Mark McGhee, the manager, described the decision as life-changing. “I can sell the club better to players I am trying bring in, particularly young players,” he said. “We lost Adam Virgo (to Celtic) and Dan Harding (to Leeds United, both last summer) as a result of not being able to give them something to look forward to. I can now say ‘Stick with us and in a couple of years’ time you will be stepping out at a fantastic new facility which gives us the opportunity of going on into the big time’.”

“This is our greatest home win ever,” Dick Knight, the Brighton chairman, said. “We have been battling for so long.”

Objectors, who complained about the proximity to the site of a village, a national park and areas of outstanding natural beauty, have 30 days to appeal, but the nature of the previous inquiries leaves them little chance of success. If there are no further hold-ups, the club hopes to kick off at Falmer at the start of the 2008-09 season, provided that funding for the project, whose costs are estimated at £50 million, can be confirmed, with both private and public money involved.

The leafy downland surroundings on one side of the stadium caused planning problems, but the presence of areas of severe deprivation on the other will help to attract development grants. “The site used to be part of the car park of the polytechnic I went to years ago,” Cook, a substantial investor in the club whose record company, Skint, is the main shirt sponsor, said. “So it’s going to be weird, especially as our last ground is now the car park of Toys ‘R’ Us.

“For me, it means the survival of the club. We couldn’t operate without a home and we couldn’t operate financially on our gate receipts. Every time we got a good player we had to sell them, the managers kept going because they were frustrated how long it was taking and the owners have been shelling out more and more money just to keep the club afloat.

“Now we don’t have to sell the Bobby Zamoras, we can be proud of where we play and be financially viable. There have been moments when we didn’t think the club would get this far. The hard work is starting now, but at least we’re going to be allowed to do it.”