THE deputy leader of Worcester City Council has admitted to having reservations about a football stadium on Perdiswell Park - saying the location may be too "challenging" to make it work.

Councillor Marc Bayliss says the Conservative leadership does want to help Worcester City FC return home, insisting the club's Kidderminster exile is "not a long-term option" for its survival.

But he told your Worcester News Perdiswell Park may have too many "challenges", including the sheer weight of opposition and the fact the site is designated public open space.

It comes just days after we revealed how Sheena Ramsey, the council's managing director, is looking at possible alternatives for the club - none of which have been made public yet.

Councillor Bayliss said: "It's no secret we're keen to see Worcester City Football Club come back, it's not a long-term option for them to stay at Kidderminster.

"We are keen to help them but Perdiswell does have its challenges, in the sense of the large numbers of objections from local communities and that it's designated as public open space and has been for a long time.

"I'm not talking about the planning application, it's just a challenging location generally.

"If there are other sites less challenging where the club could move more smoothly, I don't know.

"But we want to help the club and I'm very happy to sit down with them and work with people to find a solution.

"It's a really difficult one, I do genuinely want to help the club come back to Worcester, the question is how do we find the right site for them."

The club's supporter's trust was left reeling after Ms Ramsey told the club in November that alternative sites were being looked at.

She has refused to comment on it publicly, as the authority regarded their meeting as private, but club director Jeremy Pitt says they have been waiting weeks for answers.

The planning application over a £2 million stadium at Perdiswell Park was submitted back in April 2014 and has hit a raft of obstacles.

It has proved to be among the most bitterly-contested issues for a generation in the city, with a record number of 1,500 public responses and two petitions both for and against the bid each attracting more than 1,000 signatures.

There is also concern about whether the trust can get together the funds for it.

Ms Ramsey's predecessor as city council managing director, Duncan Sharkey, was actively pushing for the club to relocate to Perdiswell Park before his departure nine months ago.

Rob Crean, the supporter's trust secretary, said more talks are scheduled with the planning department on Wednesday, February 24 to try and move forward.

"We've already done 'sequential testing' which looked at all the other sites across Worcester and that identified Perdiswell as the best place," he said.

"We wouldn't have pushed it this far if we hadn't got that support from Duncan Sharkey, he was the one who encouraged us to work with the swimming pool project team."