Brighton and Hove Albion have been granted extra time to salvage their plans to build a stadium at Falmer.

A planning inspector today gave the club three months to resolve a dispute with the University of Brighton about access to the 22,000-seater ground.

But the club has had to sign a binding agreement ensuring all the remaining issues are resolved by the time the public inquiry adjourns at the end of next week.

The club's last-minute bid for a delay to the hearing threw the £48 million scheme into disarray.

Bosses came perilously close to withdrawing the plan as they sweated for 48 hours on the inspector's decision.

Both parties were still locked in talks yards away from the Brighton Town Hall inquiry room today as inspector John Collyer made his announcement.

The club and its fans now face a tense summer as negotiations progress with the university, which owns about a third of the site off Village Way North.

If talks were to break down Jonathon Clay, representing the club, has raised the possibility of acquiring the land by compulsory purchase.

The only issues that will be discussed when the inspector returns in September are the proposed coach park and road junction.

The university wants a new road to be built to the ground including a roundabout at the junction with The Drove.

But the Albion and university must still resolve the other major sticking point before the adjournment.

They have less than a week to agree on tough legal safeguards college bosses are demanding to ensure student life is not affected by the stadium.

The university says it wants stricter-than-usual controls because of a "history of political alignment" between the club and councillors.

Club chief executive Martin Perry said: "What we have to do now is put the planning application in for these minor matters and see it through and complete our negotiations with the university.

"The university has said repeatedly that it supports the stadium at Falmer so I have got every confidence we will get an agreement."

The option to pull out was described as the "doomsday scenario" by club representatives.

Mr Perry said: "That was one of the alternatives. I'm not going to say how close we came to that, it was just one of the options."

Opponents of the stadium said the new access proposals had not been submitted to the inquiry before.

Charlie Hopkins, representing Falmer and Rottingdean Parish Councils, said: "We are very happy with what has happened yesterday and today, because the inspector has made it very clear all that is going to be discussed in September are the new issues.

"It means that the club will not have the extra time it was clearly looking for to correct a number of other matters.

"They were looking for more time to work on these issues and the inspector has not given them that time, so we are perfectly happy with his ruling."

The inquiry will reconvene next week for final submissions and to set planning safeguards.

The two-week additional session is expected to start in late September.