GIANT DIY firm B&Q has emerged as the financial backer of Worcester City's dream of a move to a state-of-the art soccer stadium, the Evening News can reveal.

The pivotal commercial development would allow the change from a "crumbling" St George's Lane to a ground on the outskirts of the city with an initial 7,000 capacity.

The spectacular centrepiece will provide new jobs for the city, a stadium fit for the football league and give the county the biggest boost to the national sport since the St George's Lane ground was built in 1905.

A project team for the club is due to hand a promotional package to Worcester city councillors on Monday, ready for discussion at an informal planning presentation the following week.

The team, headed by city solicitor David Hallmark, will be seeking support in principle for the scheme, in order to give project leaders the confidence to thoroughly investigate the potential of the Nunnery Way site.

"Our aim at the meeting is not for councillors to give planning permission, but to endorse and encourage our bid for development," he said.

"We want to form an initial base of confidence so we can then promote and begin the evolution process of our proposal."

The 20-acre site, just off the M5 on the eastern side of the city, has already received the backing of councillors, when the land was earmarked for a stadium in the Local Plan.

But the Local Plan does not register the ground as being part of an enabling scheme to pay for the move.

The football club needs the B&Q superstore to pay for the move to provide the massive finance for the stadium and its infra-structure.

A leisure complex, offices, a car dealership and tennis centre are previous enabling developments which have been turned down by the city council since the move was first investigated in 1988.

The Dr Martens Premier team is approaching its centenary celebrations next year.