WEYMOUTH Football Club have made a passionate plea to councillors not to ‘kill their dream’ and block chances of the town having a new multi-million community sports facility.

They are backing a fresh plan to build up to 170 homes at the Bob Lucas Stadium as it will fund a new relocated base for the Terras with modern facilities.

The club – which has agreed terms with developers Wessex Delivery which it says will protect the club and enable it to have a say on a possible relocation – claims the housing plan provides the ‘only realistic prospect of a new community stadium’.

But the club’s emotional pleas have been blasted by a local councillor.

There is also some speculation where a new stadium could be built as a plan to build at Lodmoor was rejected in August.

An application to redevelop at the Bob Lucas Stadium was rejected by West Dorset District Council last year and is going to appeal next month.

But the council is withdrawing one of its arguments after criticism of housing targets contained in the local plan.

This has prompted Wessex Delivery LLP to submit an identical application for redevelopment in the hope the council will reconsider, and avoid a costly appeal.

Club solicitors have been instructed to write to the council to support the new application.

Under agreed terms with Wessex Delivery LLP, the club it will have a say on location and design of the new stadium. There will be no building on the existing site until a new stadium is secured and the club will not be forced to move if planning permission is not secured.

The club is now establishing a Project Board made up of three members from the Terras and Wessex Delivery.

A club statement read: “This will protect WFC but gives the club the chance to move to a £7m+ stadium sited where we chose.

“This is dramatic progress.

“There will be no building on the Bob Lucas Stadium or the car park or any of the land that we use.

“The stadium will be built before we move (if we move).

“The Board has therefore secured practically everything that our supporters wanted, but the chance of a new stadium now rests very much in the hands of WDDC and their planning committee.

“It is possible that the councillors will reject planning and kill the dream…the decision lies with the councillors.”

It added: “The new stadium will not just be the home of WFC but a community stadium. We will demand a state of the art 3G pitch which can be used by us but also lots of other sports clubs.

“It is about time that Weymouth had something new, something positive, something that the town can be proud of.”

Stadium site is for leisure uses

DISTRICT councillor for Chickerell Elaine Whyte said: “No-one is stopping the football club from finding a new site. This is not about killing the dream.

“A new stadium cannot be at the expense of existing planning policies and people that live in the community around it.

“The existing stadium is not a designated development area, it is for leisure facilities.

“There’s already a huge amount of housing to be built in Chickerell over the next few years.”

She added: “I’m a supporter of the football club and am very proud of it but this sounds like they are stirring up public opinion. They are using certain language just to be controversial.

“It’s like holding a gun to someone’s head.”

Fellow councillor Jean Dunseith also objects to the housing plan and added: “Where would the new stadium go? The plan for Lodmoor has been rejected so what other sites are suitable?”