THE leader of Worcester City Council has issued a plea for the city's football club and supporter's trust to "work together" over building a new stadium - and insists the Perdiswell plan is not off the table.

Councillor Adrian Gregson says the two sides need to "demonstrate" they can find a common solution over Worcester City FC's plight.

It comes after the Worcester News revealed a leaked document over a secret proposal for city's new ground to be in Warndon Villages, off Parsonage Way.

The trust says the Warndon Villages suggestion was sprung upon them "in the middle of March", and still insists its planning application for a 4,100 capacity ground at Perdiswell Park should be the solution.

The council has been taking an increasing amount of flak over the Perdiswell bid, which has still not been voted on by councillors three years after being submitted.

But Cllr Gregson insisted the Perdiswell application will get a proper hearing.

"There is an independent, private planning application by the supporter's trust for Perdiswell, and there is a responsibility to get that through the planning system," he said.

"Unfortunately some of the information is out of date, which is why the council have asked it to be updated, but the council cannot stop any planning applications from going through the system once it has been lodged.

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"And any decision on land sales or leases will be taken in light of any decision the planning committee come to.

"In my view the club and the trust need to be demonstrating that they can work together to achieve their objective.

"It's the city council's job to consider the planning process and facilitate something that is in the best interests of the city as a whole."

But the supporter's trust has reacted with fury at the ongoing delay over Perdiswell, and says it has no interest in the Warndon idea.

Rich Widdowson, from the trust, said: "Warndon was completely sprung upon the trust a few weeks ago - they weren't told about it until the middle of March, it's outrageous.

"The question is, we're literally weeks away from a hearing (a planning committee vote over Perdiswell), so why is the council putting forward another site?

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"As far as the trust is concerned, we are nowhere with Warndon - we've got a planning application for a ground at Perdiswell, and that's what we are pursuing."

The leaked document, dated in March, said the council, club and the Worcestershire FA had reached a "a provisional collective agreement" to push ahead with the Warndon plan.

It also said the council would fund a new planning application for the scheme, but the document - a draft press release - was never signed off.

The council says the Perdiswell planning application will be voted on "in the near future".

The club has been playing outside of Worcester since the closure of St George's Lane in 2013.