THE seven-year lease for the Victoria Ground is the main priority for Bromsgrove Rovers after chief executive Pat Bannister became majority shareholder of the club last Tuesday.

In the meantime, director of football and business consultant Steve Daniels has given the club breathing space by finalising the business plan to present to the courts this Monday, allowing them to go into temporary administration.

The plan -- a complex report which freezes debts including the £18,000 HM Customs and Excise bill adjourned until March 12 -- details all the club's finances, including how they will be paid. The club will then be put into administration until the lease has been granted and Bannister's consortium pays all the outstanding debts.

Bannister now owns around 90 per cent of the shares in the Dr Martens League Western Division outfit after buying former chairman Stuart Arnold's quota. Now he waits anxiously for the lease from Bromsgrove District Council to secure the club's future.

He is yet to hear from them about a date for the new lease and time is running out.

THREATENED

The Dr Martens League have threatened to boot Rovers out if it is not in place by May 1. It was originally April 1 but the Football Association Advisory Unit have helped put that deadline back a month.

Leader of the council, Cllr Nick Psirides, instructed district secretary Bob Lewis to write to Bannister and inform him who were his solicitors so draft copies for the lease could be processed. But the Rovers supremo has only received a letter from Lewis stating the council was planning to discuss the lease in the future.

"We've made a number of calls to the council but still had no comeback from them," said Bannister. "We are having a meeting with them on Friday regarding rates that we owe but I certainly haven't received a letter asking for our solicitors' details. All they have to do is give me a ring."

In the meantime, bridges could be built between the board of directors and the independently run Bromsgrove Rovers Supporters Society.

Bannister has already met with the Society's vice-chairman Chris Anscombe and committee member Tony Unwin with a view to a March meeting of the two sides which could see a stronger relationship between them. Supporters' forums are due to re-start in March as Bannister looks to answer any concerns supporters may have over the present situation at the club.