THE dream of bringing Worcester City back home and providing the club with hope of a future has taken a significant step forward.

At a meeting held at Tudor Grange Academy, members of the club’s supporters’ trust unanimously approved the submission of plans for a new stadium at Perdiswell to Worcester City Council.

They also gave the thumbs up to a proposal to change the Skrill North club’s constitution so that it is owned and run by the fans.

More than 130 people attended the meeting to hear the trust’s vision for the future of City as well as view designs for the Perdiswell project, which features a 4,100-capacity community stadium.

Those plans are now set to be handed to the council this week and a decision on the scheme is expected in the first few months of next year.

A large chunk of the funding for the £2million stadium would come through grants from organisations such as the Football Foundation. Access to such money will be made easier if the constitution change is accepted by the club’s shareholders.

The trust want to switch from the current model, which only allows a maximum shareholding of one per cent, to one which will give their group 51 per cent. An EGM will be called for this to be voted on by shareholders.

Similar approaches have been adopted by clubs like Telford, Wimbledon and Portsmouth.

A trust statement explained: “A community club is unlike the vast majority of football clubs, it has community objectives written into its constitution and any profits that are made are wholly reinvested back into either the club or the community.

“Fan-based ownership will not only make the club a more inclusive organisation but it will also increase our chances of long-term success.

“Staying as we are is not sustainable as we are limited on what extra investment we can bring in and we cannot survive away from Worcester with a constitution that is past its sell-by date and not fit for purpose in the modern era.”

A spokesman added: “The meeting was a great success.

“We ran through the proposal for the plans for Perdiswell, which was 100 per cent backed, and then went through what we wanted to do to make the club fan-owned.

“We are happy with the way things are progressing at the moment.”

Manager Carl Heeley has also thrown his weight behind the trust’s plans and spoke of the club’s financial plight at the meeting.

He added: “At the moment the club is going through its toughest period in its history and out of all the managers that have ever been in the hot-seat, I have probably got the toughest job. But something has to change.

“Clubs that have gone down the fans-owned route have always been successful and it’s an interesting model.

“For me, we have to do something differently to try to give this club the opportunity to compete on a level playing field and the level we operate. That is a positive step and the way forward.”