CLAIMS Worcester City verbally agreed a 50 per cent stake in Sixways have been dismissed by Warriors chairman Cecil Duckworth.

Former City chief Dave Boddy said discussions were held in 2006 over the St George’s Lane club becoming joint rugby stadium owners.

The revelation comes in the second part of the Worcester News’ exclusive interview with the ex-City chairman.

However, Duckworth said Warriors were never prepared to jeopardise their future to facilitate the football club. He also revealed City rejected the offer of using one of the rugby club’s training grounds.

“The 50-50 deal was mentioned in some correspondence but I completely dismissed that as non-practical because we were at a stage in development that could never justify that sort of arrangement,” Duckworth said.

“That was proposed by the football club but we were never going to give up what we had achieved for something which might constrain our development.

“Although we did have an exploratory meeting I said we would look at it and did offer them one of our training grounds as a possibility but that wasn’t pursued by the football club.”

Duckworth added: “The problem is primacy of tenure and we certainly wouldn’t be giving that up having got where we are.

“The Premiership wants to move away from dual sharing grounds on the basis that you can’t move the fixtures when you want to.

“As Premiership newcomers we had no chance of coming to an agreement where that would be acceptable.”

Meanwhile, Worcester City Council have also hit back at claims they caused the demise of the football club.

Boddy accused Guildhall planners of going back on an agreement to allow 98 homes on the Lane in a deal worth £7.36million with Careys New Homes which would have funded a new stadium at Nunnery Way.

Planning manager Paul O’Connor, who was involved in the discussions at the time, said: “We have always been in support of residential development of the site, but on the basis of a scheme that satisfied the necessary standards.

“The original Local Plan allocation made provision for 55 dwellings, so there was always a challenge to raise the number to the level the club were proposing.

“The city council subsequently went out of its way to assist the club in its application following the end of its arrangement with Bellway Homes. We could have chosen not to continue and entered into lengthy discussions on affordable housing.

“There were no agreements, no allocations or any recommendations to committee for 98 dwellings. If it could be proved that 98 dwellings could be accommodated satisfactorily, we would have supported but no such scheme could be produced.”

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