THE Victoria Ground has staged many memorable battles since Bromsgrove Rovers trotted out for their first game in 1910 after moving there from Well Lane.

But matches are usually no more than 90 minutes and at the end the winners generally acknowledge their opponents in a sportsman like way with a friendly handshake or pat on the back.

However, the battle that is about to commence and for which strategies are being planned, will be longer, will not involve 22 muddy footballers kicking a ball about and almost certainly the victor will not rush to congratulate the loser.

For the battle will be one of words - and the prize will be either the football ground and land to the south being saved from the bulldozers or an as yet unknown development building on the site.

The council, albeit at the eleventh hour before the decision was taken last week to enter into negotiations with Aberdeen Harbour Investments, has pledged a district wide referendum before a brick is laid.

During the next year, the time the council has given the company to put the deal together, the authority and developer will no doubt do their best to convince the electorate that what is being planned will greatly benefit the town.

Their argument will be that like any council, it has a duty to its residents to improve facilities and encourage investment.

Councillor Margaret Taylor (Con-Linthurst), the deputy leader of the authority, has already stated they are responding to the wishes of the public by proposing to develop "a substantial area fronting Birmingham and Stourbridge Roads to bring about a "significant improvement" to town centre facilities.

"The town centre needs an injection of investment," she added.

But residents in the vicinity naturally see things very differently. Their resolve to take on the council hardened after what they heard at last week's full council meeting.

This week they wrote stating their case to MP Julie Kirkbride, the Prime Minister and Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith. They also plan to write to the Ombudsman.

Councillor Nick Psirides's last minute proposal to hold a district-wide referendum, to which the council agreed unanimously, only served to make residents more enraged.

Their spokesman, Don Ross from Victoria Road, declared angrily: "I'm all for democracy but why should someone living in Wythall have a say on a development just yards from our back doors and if built, something that will have a devastating effect on all our lives?"

Rovers, they say are good neighbours, and they bought their homes knowing they were next door to a football stadium.

Their campaign, for which they have already taken legal advice, will centre round the terms of a covenant put on the Victoria Ground by a sporting syndicate in 1948 and which everyone born in the town is indoctrinated with from an early age.

It states the ground must revert to a public open space in the event of it not being wanted by the club.

However, the Advertiser/Messenger has said many times, and it has never been denied, that today the covenant is not worth the paper it is written on.

Three years ago leading counsel declared that the district authority is free to do as it wishes with the land.

Meanwhile, all attempts to contact the developers have failed and the council insists it cannot give us their address or comment further on the plans.

If all this sounds familiar think back a few years to the Recreation Ground saga, incidentally another hush-hush-plan until it was exposed by this paper.

Then it was Labour in the driving seat, the Tories will not need reminding what fate subsequently befell them at the next local elections.