COUNCIL chiefs in Worcester are understood to be trying to find the city's exiled football club alternative sites to Perdiswell - casting fresh doubts over the club's hopes of building a new £2million stadium there.

After months of nagging delays over the stadium project at Perdiswell Park, which has hit a raft of obstacles, private talks have taken place about the club’s future.

Your Worcester News understands alternative locations are being considered, on the basis the Perdiswell project could ultimately end up doomed.

But the club says it has no idea where the alternative sites might be, despite assurances they would know by the start of the year.

Worcester City FC held its Annual General Meeting last night where supporters and shareholders were told about the shock new developments by newly-elected club director Jeremy Pitt.

He confirmed he had held a meeting with Sheena Ramsey, the managing director of Worcester City Council, on November 12 where he was told it was "not a suitable site" to build a 4,419-capacity ground.

"At that meeting we asked Sheena what the other options were, and she said to us there were other pieces of land they were looking at," he said.

"And she promised to get back to us by the end of December with these other alternatives.

"It is now January 28 and we've no other options that have been put forward to us, nothing at all, so I think that sums up what the appetite of the council is to getting Worcester City back into Worcester.

"If the council considers Perdiswell as a sporting hub within the city then the football club should play a very major part in that sporting hub.

"Without Perdiswell there is no club, and that's the bottom line."

Rob Crean, secretary of the club's supporters' trust, the group behind the proposals, which were submitted to the council in April 2014, said the club had reached its "most serious point" yet.

"Up until fairly recently we were fairly confident the high echelons of the council looked favourably on the Perdiswell plans," he said.

"Nobody is going to come out and say yes 'you can have Perdiswell'.

"But recently there has been changes in the council that have given us concerns that any level of support is, if not weakening, is actually disappearing."

The council today insisted it would not be making any comment on the private talks, nor would they confirm publicly what was said to the trust.

But it has denied that Ms Ramsey said Perdiswell was not the preferred option.

Conservative Councillor Simon Geraghty, the city council’s current leader, is due to step down in February after taking over at County Hall but has consistently refused to get into the debate, saying the Perdiswell scheme will ultimately be a matter for the city's planning committee in due course.

Some politicians today said if the council does put together a list of alternatives, it will have their support.

Tory Councillor Gareth Jones, who represents the area, said: "I don’t know what was said in these talks but there are a lot of issues with Perdiswell, I am totally against it.

"We have not discussed it within the group but I’ve told them (the rest of the Conservatives) how I feel."

Green Councillor Neil Laurenson, who represents St Stephen, said: "If the council is prepared to look at alternatives that's encouraging - we all want to see the football club come back but not to Perdiswell.

"We all know the traffic problems on Bilford Road, and there's a new swimming pool being built there too."

The club has been exiled at Kidderminster’s Aggborough since 2013 after leaving St George’s Lane.