Nick Higgs believes Bristol Rovers' move to a new state-of-the-art training facility in their home city is another sign of the steady progress the club is making on and off the pitch.

The Pirates yesterday completed their move to the South Bristol Sports Centre in Knowle, which underwent a £3 million refurbishment a few years ago after previously being known as the Imperial Ground.

The club have an initial five-year lease, which can be extended, and both management and players have welcomed the return to their home city – and facilities which are very different to the windswept Army base in Wiltshire which had been their training ground and headquarters for the previous seven years.

Bristol Rovers' chairman Higgs says the move comes on the back of other recent positive developments at the club, such as the return to running their youth scheme in-house under highly-rated coach Darren Patterson, and additions to their fitness and physiotherapy staff.

Higgs and coach Paul Trollope hope the new training facilities will help the club maintain a promising start to the campaign which saw them rise to third place in League One following Saturday's last-gasp home win over Oldham.

Although the move was delayed for 12 months while improvement work had to be carried out on the pitches at Knowle, Higgs said: "It's great to finally be here.

"When we came here 18 months ago and saw the work that was going on, everything looked fine and dandy.

"But unfortunately there were a few problems with the drainage, which thankfully highlighted themselves just before we were due to move in last September.

"It would have been a bit of a travesty if we had found there was a problem once we had already arrived.

"We might not then have had Colerne to fall back on and may have struggled to find an alternative ground, or might have had to train on substandard pitches, which isn't good for professional footballers.

"But credit to the management team at the centre, because they have got it right now and our head groundsman has been overseeing the work that has been going on.

"We are very happy and it now looks fantastic."

Rovers' main training pitch has been laid out to exactly the same dimensions as the playing surface at the Memorial Stadium and the club also have use of an all-weather surface as well as changing and treatment rooms and a fully-equipped gym.

Trollope said: "It will only add to the feel-good factor that's around the club at the moment. Everything you would want in a modern-day training ground is here.

"I've now got an office, too, which wasn't the case at Colerne, and it will be great to cut down the travelling time for the players before and after training."

Meanwhile, Higgs insists work is continuing behind the scenes in a bid to get the Memorial Stadium redevelopment scheme started this year.

Plans to transform the ground into an 18,500 all-seater venue were put on hold when the original backers of the student accommodation which is key to its financing pulled out because of the credit crunch.

But Higgs said: "It's ongoing. There's one aspect still to be sorted out, which is to do with the legal agreements on the leases (for the student accommodation).

"That didn't manifest itself until March this year, when we were all ready to go, and we have to get that resolved before we can progress. I have meetings with the funders and their advisors again this week, so it is moving on.

"I have stressed all along that I will not push the button until I'm happy that it's right for the club – but it's a question of when it will happen rather than if."