THE future of a homeless rugby team hangs in the balance with the potential sale of its training ground.

Worcester Warriors Homeless Touch Rugby Team does not know where it will train if it loses the council-owned playing field behind the YMCA centre in Henwick Road.

Cllr Richard Udall has opposed the county council’s decision to designate the land as ‘surplus to use’, which means it can be sold.

He said: “The playing field is used by many local sporting clubs - football, cricket and rugby are played on the field. To see it go for any kind of development or sold and closed to public access, would be a disaster.

"We need facilities for children to safely play."

Julian Lund, coach of the homeless team, said: “It might stop the project as we would have to train somewhere else. Not many of them [the players] have cars.

“At the moment we get a free pitch and astroturf.

“If we had to move we would have to pay for a pitch. Sometimes we set up tournaments there as well.”

Mr Lund, aged 50, said the team had changed the lives of many players, including one man who went on to join the army last year.

The team trains on the YMCA’s astroturf in the winter and uses the field in the summer.

Players for the six-a-side team either live at a city hostel or have previously been homeless.

Alan Moorhouse, head of adult communities at YMCA Worcestershire, said there are no plans to limit access to the land as part of the conversion of the YMCA centre into student housing.

He also revealed the hostel intends to move out of its Henwick Road centre by December 2019.

A Worcestershire County Council spokesman said it is currently reviewing its estates portfolio and no decision had been made about the site in Henwick Road.

The spokesman added: “This land is on our surplus list. We are talking to the YMCA about its future."

Cllr Udall, who represents St John’s, wants the field to become a sports park for local children.

He said: “Many local children enjoy the area as a playing field. It is one of the few remaining areas in St John’s that has open access and is available for sport.

“The YMCA field has been used by generations of St John’s children. I remember playing on the field when I was a child.

“It is part of the character and history of St John’s. It needs to be retained.

“St John’s residents would be rightly angry if the field was quietly sold or closed for public access, it’s needed and we have to keep it for public use.”