DROITWICH Spa Amateur Boxing Club is still waiting for building work to start on an £850,000 development more than six months after it was given the green light.

The Evesham and Pershore Housing Association project to combine the club with housing for people with mental health problems received the thumbs up from Wychavon District Council planners last June.

The project will see the boxing club on the ground floor and nine one-bedroom flats on the upper level.

But the scheme has been held up ever since council archaeologists found Roman remains on the Kidderminster Road site following a routine dig after proposals were approved. Since then meetings have taken place and following discussions with the county archaeologist, engineers have re-designed the structure and are now waiting on an architect's comments. Because of this, funding cannot be finalised.

Mary Aston, development director for the Evesham and Pershore Housing Association, said: "The project is very much active and we see no problems."

However, another archaeological dig needs to take place before any building work can start and that would mean pulling down the club's 20-year-old facility.

Coach Chris Andrews has agreed to temporarily move boxers to Westlands Community Hall but with construction estimated at a year and no guarantee of a start date after the dig, he is concerned they may be homeless for a long time.

"It's great that we have had the offer from Westlands but it's nothing like having our own premises, we won't have much of our own equipment there," he added.