There have been several reports recently about the proposed redevelopment of our stadium to meet the criteria for Football League status. Some have been misleading.

Firstly, the club has never sought financial help from its local authority. Secondly, we are not asking council tax payers to pay for our ambitions. The club has secured its own arrangements. Apart from our own resources we have also been allowed the maximum grant available from the Football Trust and have a mortgage offer for the balance.

The link with the indoor athletic track came about during early discussions with the planning department when we were asked by the Sports and Leisure Department if we could include facilities which were applicable for National Lottery funding. It would have been a council application, not the football club's. Our architects, therefore, included this in the original drawings. By creating such a new building at the south end of the ground, it necessitated a plan to increase our boundary.

We had hoped our application would have been heard in July. However, we were informed that a meeting would be achievable in August. We were told that the council would not be proceeding with a Lotterry application and were asked to resubmit drawings for the South Stand. Design work does not come cheap. However, all the other parts of our application have stood. It has been inferred that we have withdrawn our application, far from it. We are as determined as ever to continue.

We submitted our revised drawing which takes us back within our current boundary and trust that now we have a scheme that will be acceptable. Finally, we have been working with the Highways Department and have submitted a detailed proposal as to how parking can be controlled and how to ensure the minimum disruption to residents.

We have been told that our application will now be heard in November. Should we be successful we would expect to start work immediately as it is no secret that we have a tight deadline.