The club will turn the former Bearwood Golf Course on Mole Road into three full size pitches, seven pitches for age-group teams and a goal keeper training area.

The existing club house will become a security gatehouse with a cafe. The stables and offices would be refurbished and help provide a medical suite, classrooms, a gymnasium and accommodation for senior trialists. In total there would be 26 homes on the site with associated parking spaces.

When the application was first submitted in October, Reading FC spokesman Mark Bradley told the News there was ‘no timescale’ for the plans and said the club did not wish to comment further until a decision had been made.

However, previously, Nigel Howe, chief executive of Reading FC, has said: “We need to build, evolve and succeed, so we must move away from the current site, which we have outgrown.

“Our desire is to have the best possible academy. This is a vital step and if all goes well it can only be on benefit to the football club and the community.” The countryside site has a Grade two historic park and garden, on English Heritage’s ‘At Risk’ register, grade two listed buildings and a small landfill site.

The £20m project must be started within three years of permission being granted. The Royals currently train at Hogswood Park in Arborfield, where they have been since 2004.

The 320 member Bearwood Golf Club, once a popular nine-hole course closed in March last year.

The golf club tried to buy the land from the Royal Merchant Navy School Foundation but was outbid by Reading FC’s offer of £1.5m.