Worcester City shareholders agree to fan ownership

By Andy Mitchell
Worcester City’s hopes of a homecoming through a £2.5million community sports hub received a shot in the arm after shareholders agreed to fan-ownership proposals this week.
The nomadic club’s supporters’ trust finally succeeded in a bid to change a 90-year-old constitution, allowing it to acquire for free all remaining shares in the company – around 46 per cent.
The trust, which will now act as City’s parent company now, has been leading the push for a new stadium in the Perdiswell area of the city.
It faced a bitter battle for planning permission from April 2014 with Worcester City Council, the local authority that went against the advice of its own officers to reject the proposals.
That call has since been turned over by the Planning Inspectorate with the next step persuading the council, landowners of the proposed site, to grant access to it.
Planning permission dictates work must begin by September 2021 but trust chairman and club director Dave Wood is bullish about accessing funding in time.
“A lot is going to move in a very short space of time. The business plan is done, we are ready present that to the council,” said Wood.
“I have never worried because I don’t see it as being an onerous task, I see it as a fairly manageable amount of money to pull together.
“It is a matter of finding the funding streams and people who want to engage, which happens by us showing the viability of the project.”