FANS of Worcester City Football Club have used a whopping banner to rail against “delaying tactics” over the club’s homecoming.

Supporters unfurled the monster 45-metre message across Worcester Bridge on Tuesday. It pleads with Worcester City Council to “do the right thing” and back a proposed new community sports facility at Perdiswell.

The homeless club has been playing outside of the city since 2013 following the sale of St George’s Lane to developers with the first option of a new ground at Nunnery Way falling through.

Worcester City Supporters’ Trust, the independent fans’ group that recently acquired a controlling interest in the club, eventually won its fight for planning permission for a ground at Perdiswell via an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate in September 2018.

The next hurdle is access to the council-owned land with fans keen to break through resistance from some residents and councillors.

Rich Widdowson, a City supporter and member of the trust board, said: “It is a message from supporters generally and the trust backs the message that City has to come home.

“It attracted a lot of attention, people came past tooting their horns and there have been more than 200 people share it on Facebook. The feedback has been brilliant.

“The council says they fully support Worcester City coming back but they are empty words. Where are they going to come back to?

“We have put forward many different sites and every single one has had something thrown in the way of it.

“If they want us to come back they have to mean it.

“We think there are delaying tactics involved, fobbing us off with empty promises and we are not going to put up with it. If they don’t want City to come back, say so.

“Perdiswell is the best location. It is a site that has been earmarked for it for years, it is on the outskirts of the city and we are talking about a non-league football ground.”

Widdowson also argued resistance to the plans had been minimal when volunteers addressed residents recently.

“We have delivered 2,000 leaflets over the past couple of weeks around the houses in St Stephens and did it when we knew people would be at home,” he added.

“There were only a couple who said they would not want it under any circumstances. Others had no idea what the ground would be like. Once we pointed out what the plans entail the response was ‘what’s the problem?’

“If the council wants to listen to people, listen to the vast majority of views and not just those that will decide a seat on one particular ward.”

Worcester City Council declined to comment.