WORCESTER City fans behind plans to create a stadium in Perdiswell fear the club will slowly die if council bosses do not show some “political will” to return them home.

An application was submitted in April 2014 by Worcester City FC Supporters’ Trust to build a 4,419-capacity ground and an all-weather 3G pitch on land near Perdiswell Leisure Centre.

Rob Crean, secretary of the trust, says frustration has been growing at the club, which has been ground-sharing with Kidderminster Harriers since 2013, while they have gone “to-and-fro” with Worcester City Council.

Planning chiefs have confirmed they were still waiting for the trust to submit revised proposals following objections from Sport England and the Highways Agency last year.

Once this has been received, the authority will re-consult with all the objectors before a final decision can be made.

However, Crean admitted the “painfully slow process” was putting the National League North club at risk as they continue to pay rent to remain at Aggborough and has urged councillors to get behind the trust’s bid.

“The delays are going to kill us in the end or we will just wither on the vine because the only money we have got is from the sale of the ground (St George’s Lane),” he said.

“The more money we spend now the more money we will have to raise in the future to go somewhere else, so time is our enemy.”

Work is currently under way to build a £10.5million swimming pool and Crean believes the council should now focus on making the site off Bilford Road a “sporting hub” with the addition of a football stadium.

“It is a bit ironic that we have been doing this for three years and yet they are already building the swimming pool, so it makes you wonder what the political will is to get the football club back into the city,” he said.

“The question I will be asking the city council is how much do they want the football club back as part of the community and are they supporting it to the extent they did the swimming pool.

“If it is a priority, we want their help because they have been helpful up until now.

“If it is not a priority then we want to know why not?”

Lesley Mettrick helped set up Protect Perdiswell Park, which attracted more than 800 signatures against the proposals, and admitted the delays had only increased campaigners’ concerns about the future of the site.

“We are still very opposed to it and we are just waiting to hear,” she said.

“I am in touch with the local councillors quite a lot to see if there are any updates, but it has gone very quiet, which is a bit worrying. If it goes ahead it would destroy that area.”

Alan Coleman, head of planning at Worcester City Council, said: “Following the submission of the Supporters’ Trust application, consultation has taken place with numerous bodies, including Sport England and the Highways Agency, which both made formal objections to the application.

“The city council has worked through the issues they raised with the trust, and is now waiting for the trust to submit revised proposals as part of the same planning application which will overcome these objections.

“When the city council receives this, we will then need to re-consult with all the objectors, before a final decision on the application can be reached.”

City's former home at St George's Lane was sold off for housing.

 

Worcester News comment

THIS newspaper considers itself a close friend of Worcester City Football Club.
We have been there for the moments of ecstasy and misery (though, sadly, there seem to have been more of the latter).

We have basked in the hope-filled warmth of new-season matches in August and shivered through dreary rain-sodden February nights.

We have watched, moist-eyed with nostalgia, the demolition of St George’s Lane, and written like eager schoolboys of the fabulous new stadium the club would one day occupy.

We have cheered City on and – because friends do this sometimes – we have also asked awkward questions when they needed to be asked.

We have done all this since we were first published in 1935.

But possibly for the first time since then we detect some very serious worries about the club – not just about its league performance, but its very survival.

There is no doubt that City’s fans, through their supporters’ trust, have worked hard to come up with a viable plan for a future at a new ground at Perdiswell, Worcester.

But for reasons explained in our front-page story today progress has been fitful. City now needs nothing less than political and/or business leadership of the highest calibre to move them forward.

It is time for a hero off the pitch.