WORCESTER City Football Club is unlikely to move to a new stadium in the foreseeable future.

Club solicitor David Hallmark has told shareholders that, unless the city council's planning policies changed, they had reached a "dead end" in talks to build a new stadium at Nunnery Way.

But the club does not plan to give up its fight to leave St George's Lane, and now hopes to step up the pressure on local councillors.

Although the land is earmarked for a stadium in the Local Plan, the club has yet to find additional development on the site that meets council requirements and would help pay the £5m cost.

"One day I hope the club will have a stadium we've been seeking, but it won't happen in the immediate future unless something as yet unspotted comes forward to change the financial circumstances of the club," Mr Hallmark said at the annual meeting yesterday.

"We've tried very hard, but we've achieved very little, and there are some problems today that were there when we started.

"We can't get the right planning profile for this site which will give the profit to pay for the stadium. Until these policies change, we've achieved a dead-end."

Chairman Dr Michael Sorensen said the club had reached a point where it was becoming "increasingly evident that without more positive political will, it will not be possible to relocate".

The club's immediate future appears to be at St George's Lane.

"With enhanced grants available, we may look at developing the stadium to its 8,000 capacity which has previously been agreed by the local authority," he added.

"We don't want to do this, because it wouldn't provide facilities to generate income other than from the paying supporter."

But he did not rule out approaching Worcester Rugby Club with a view to sharing their Sixways headquarters.

"We've had discussions before, but it appeared that we'd never have been an equal partner. That isn't to say that we can't go back to Cecil Duckworth and talk - it's an option."