Plans for a major new sports complex in Dundee have been withdrawn from the agenda of a council development committee.

Campaigners opposed to the £21m facility at Caird Park welcomed the move to seek further scrutiny of the bid.

The centre would provide a training and competition venue for regional squads across a wide range of sports and provide facilities training for Dundee FC.

Opponents have raised environmental concerns and say it will remove the public part of Caird Park.

The plans were withdrawn from Dundee council's development management committee on Monday due to an objector requesting a pre-determination hearing.

Council officials will now consider the request, which would result in further scrutiny of the plans taking place before it returns to a later committee.

A Dundee City Council spokesman said: "Following a request from one of the objectors for a pre-determination hearing into the proposed Regional Performance Centre for Sport and Caird Park Training Ground, the item was withdrawn from the development management committee agenda for Monday November 24.

"This will allow council officers to properly consider the request and to advise the committee.

"Pre-determination hearings are required in certain cases as part of enhanced scrutiny measures.

"They are aimed at making the planning system more inclusive and allow the views of applicants and those who have made representations to be heard before a planning decision is taken."

The proposed complex would be a regional performance centre for sport in Tayside and Fife.

Dundee City Council and sportscotland are partners in the project.

Amy Paterson, of the Care for Caird group, welcomed the move to seek a pre-determination hearing.

She said: "It will hopefully make them look into things in more detail. More scrutiny can only be a good thing.

"People play football on the park and there are families that use the park as it is. If they build the complex, that's removing that space for them."

Protected species such as red squirrels, otters and bats could be affected by the development, she said.

The park was donated to the people of Dundee by industrialist Sir James Caird, who died in 1916.