YOUNG footballers in Warndon Villages could soon be enjoying their own £1m ground - if club bosses gather support for a housing development.

Warndon Villages Football Club founder Lynn Gardener said she had a meeting with developer Persimmon to try and secure land south of Warndon Wood for the trade-off.

"I said, 'if we get you votes for your 40 houses, what are you going to give us', and he said 'peppercorn rent'," Ms Gardener told Warndon Parish Council.

The club currently trains at Lyppard Grange Primary School, but project manager and coach Phil Pane said the facilities were inadequate.

"We're catering for approximately 100 children," he said at a Warndon Parish Council meeting.

"We use the school field for approximately two-and-a-half hours every Saturday, catering for children aged between four-and-a-half and nine," he said.

"From September, we're taking on 10-year-olds and we hope to expand right up to 15.

"At the moment, we're turning enthusiastic children away."

Mr Pane said he also wanted to expand the club to teach disabled children and to incorporate other sports.

Warndon Villages Football Club submitted plans to the Football Foundation for a bigger facility, including five mini soccer pitches, two all-weather pitches, one full-size pitch, an indoor five-a-side pitch, changing rooms and an administration building.

Mr Pane estimated the cost would be £1.2m, provided mostly by the Football Foundation. But first the club would have to find a location.

The site, south of Warndon Wood, off Plantation Drive, is opposite the place where Persimmon wants to build 40 affordable houses.

"That is an absolutely gorgeous place for vandals," quipped parish clerk Les Bishop.

Ms Gardener added: "We're aware of that, but that's part of the reason we set up...To provide something for children and remove the vandalism.

"It will be for Warndon Villages children first and then, maybe later, for others in Worcester."