Worcester City Football Club's bid for a new stadium looks doomed after rejection by a Government inspector.

However, city councillors have been urged to ignore the advice and back the scheme at a meeting next month.

Today club chairman Dave Boddy argues the case for a new modern 6,000-seater stadium.

THE need for Worcester City Football Club to relocate to a new modern stadium has never been greater.

Failure to move WCFC from its present location at St George's Lane within the next few years will see the club stagnate and may even threaten its long-term future.

The cost of maintaining the Lane which is a traditional but ageing and outdated facility are growing year on year and over the last six years the club has spent more than £200,000 just in order to meet the criteria of the Safety in Sports Ground Act and to maintain a 4,000 capacity ground and Nationwide Football Conference ground grading.

With the criteria to meet the Safety in Sports Ground Act, becoming more stringent season by season and the implications of the Disability Discrimination Act, which comes into being in October of this year, the on-going costs of "patching up" St George's Lane on an annual basis will become even greater.

At a new stadium, maintenance costs would be minimal in comparison, as it would be built to meet all of the current criteria.

When we achieve promotion to the Nationwide Football Conference, (which there is still a faint possibility of this season) we have two years in which to increase our capacity to 6,000 which would again involve massive cost and on-going maintenance.

For the club to progress and strive towards Football League status that surely a sporting City of the size and tradition of Worcester deserves, we also need to have the ability to dramatically increase our commercial revenue income streams.

The facilities, space and location at St George's Lane with all the associated problems of parking and access, are never going to allow us to do that.

Again, a new stadium with all of the commercial and corporate opportunities that can be housed within such a facility will give us the opportunity to be able to take the club forward towards that goal.

In recent years, the current board of directors has turned it into a progressive and ambitious club, which now plays a major role within the heart of the local community.

We have a thriving Football Development Scheme in partnership with Worcester College of Technology, which sees 40 local students combining full-time training with full-time education giving the best of local talent the opportunity to progress.

The success of this scheme has been highlighted in the last month with Worcester born-and-bred Shabir Khan coming through to make his full first team debut.

We have a full-time community officer who oversees quality football coaching in more than 25 local schools on a daily basis and organises coaching courses and holiday soccer schools again giving opportunities to our children.

We run a junior club with teams from under 12 to 16 for both boys and girls, a highly successful women's team and have recently launched an initiative to help all local sporting clubs, organisations and associations with practical help and support for a range of things varying from coaching support to organisational help and fundraising.

In April, we will be launching a team for the disabled.

Topically, tonight sees the official launch of the Worcester City Supporter's Trust that has as one of its main objectives to further develop the club's links with the community.

A new stadium will give us the opportunity and facilities necessary to further develop and improve these and more community related projects for the benefit of the city of Worcester.

The need for a modern stadium with adequate parking access and road infrastructure, as would be the case at Nunnery Way, is plain for all to see.

The club cannot finance such a project at Nunnery Way without development. The city councillors have already voted by a large majority for the policy to be inserted to the local plan and therefore demonstrated their desire for the project to succeed. Trevor Brooking, the Football Association's director of football development, said at the official opening of Westfields Football Club's new ground on Monday evening that if the will was there, we could achieve our new stadium.

Elected councillors of Worcester, if the will is there, together we can deliver what the Citizens of Worcester have told you they want.