Pressing for change: City's Shareholders Action Group

The Shareholders Action Group at Worcester City is to present a further bid for an Extraordinary General Meeting to the club's board.

The group's spokesman Derek Jones told BBC Hereford and Worcester any hopes of a compromise are dead in the water.

"As far as our side is concerned we are totally against the ground move to Nunnery Way and they are all for it.

"Given that we are so far apart on that issue there's not much we can compromise about, really," he added.

The club's former chairman and long-time director Dr Michael Sorensen resigned his seat on the board earlier in the week, saying that he did not have the backing of the current board when it came to his efforts to broker the compromise deal.

I have nothing but total respect for Mike Sorensen - he did try to broker a deal Shareholders Action Group spokesman Derek Jones

Derek Jones said the club had lost a really dedicated servant over the issue and Dr Sorensen's efforts had deserved a far better outcome.

"I have nothing but total respect for Mike Sorensen - he did try to broker a deal," he said.

"Paul Curtis and I sat in his surgery with [the City chairman] Dave Boddy on a Saturday morning trying to thrash it out and it was quite clear what both sides wanted.

"Dave Boddy said he had to go and sell it to the rest of the board, but came back and said he couldn't do that, which I find strange as I would have thought that was the chairman's job to convince his board members that that was the best for the club, as that was what he was saying in the meeting," added Jones.

The Shareholders Action Group's statement has been issued jointly with the Blue Square South club's Supporters Trust and their main concern is over the viability of the proposed move to a new stadium at Nunnery Way.

The statement says the plans presented to public meetings do not accord with the actual proposals based on the limited funds available from the sale of St George's Lane and the repayment of massive bank debts.

Earlier this week, Dave Boddy told BBC Hereford and Worcester the credit crunch had hit City's plans hard.

The price of the sale of St George's Lane has fallen dramatically over a 12-month period Worcester City chairman Dave Boddy

"The price of the sale of St George's Lane has fallen dramatically over a 12-month period, and the rental yields that St Modwen's were going to be attracting for the enabling development at Nunnery Way have fallen," he said.

"On the other hand, production costs are rising in terms of building the stadium, so you have a treble-whammy there and it's a situation that is totally out of our control," he added.

While Derek Jones has some sympathy for the effects of the credit crunch, he says the current board can't blame the economic situation for all of their problems.

"I suppose you could have a certain amount of sympathy, but I'm not quite sure what Dave Boddy is alluding to in that statement," he said.

"There was a previous deal that was worth a million pounds more than the Carey deal, so you would have to ask why that deal fell through.

"Maybe we would not be in the situation that we are in now if things had moved a jolly sight faster years ago," he added.

The Shareholders Action Group plans to present a Shareholders Requisiton for an EGM on Saturday 13 September.