Worcester City Football Club is hoping to persuade 15,000 people to support its latest drive to build a new ground.

The club plans to launch a new media campaign in September to persuade Worcester City Council to support plans for a new stadium and B&Q retail superstore at Nunnery Way.

More details will be announced nearer the time, but the club is to ask members of the public to sign letters of support.

The club hopes to get the amended plans included in the draft City of Worcester Local Plan, for which the Local Enquiry will be held next spring.

Importance

At the club's annual meeting of shareholders yesterday, project director David Hallmark said in a letter that the new media campaign will "promote the cause of the club for its new stadium and for facilities for the community for the next 100 years."

"We shall be able to use the database assembled for the referendum to emphasise to the local politicians the importance of this matter to the local community," he added.

"The project team consider that there are reasonable prospects of success, and welcome the support and encouragement which has been given by so many for so long."

Appraisal reports should be submitted by the club to the council in time for its full meeting in December.

In the meantime, the club will develop detailed drawings and costings of the scheme, as well as assess the prospects for planning permission to turn their existing St George's Lane ground into housing.

The campaign will be launched at their home Dr Martens League Premier Division game with Stafford Rangers, which has been earmarked as a special centenary match, on Friday, September 20.

Earlier this year the Evening News was at the forefront of a cross-media campaign, at which 6,000 people - 95 per cent of the turnout - voted in favour of the project.

City director Brian Lancaster said of the latest scheme: "We want 15,000 people to sign letters, and we need people to help us go out and get that support."