A RIVAL bid for a proposed new ground for Worcester City has been unveiled.

The Shareholders Action Group want to site a 6,000-capacity low-level stadium on the Cinderella Sports Ground in St John’s.

Talks have been held with city council representatives over the proposal for a community facility on the site, which would include an Olympic-size swimming pool and gymnastics hall.

Worcestershire County Cricket Club’s historic former pavilion, recently saved from demolition, would become the base for amateur sports clubs.

The council said earlier this year that it needed the help of a wealthy sports team or benefactor to secure the long-term future of the building.

With City’s annual general meeting just over a fortnight away, SAG are hoping the stadium, planned for completion by September 2012, will get the backing of the shareholders.

The group — comprising chartered accountant Barry Ward, former director Derek Jones, surveyor Richard Bentley, former councillor Colin Layland and City sponsor Martin Pinches — will push for the project if they are voted to the board.

The news comes just weeks after the Blue Square South club unveiled plans for a stadium at Nunnery Way in a £30m scheme with St Modwen.

A planning application for that project has yet to be submitted but the club hope for a decision in early 2009.

SAG believe the St Modwen deal, together with Careys New Homes buying St George’s Lane, is not set in stone.

They claim their bid will save money because the infrastructure is already in place.

Ward said: “We think the Cinderella ground would be the ideal place for the ground, together with a swimming pool. Not just a football club but as a general sports facility using the pavilion for amateur sports as their headquarters.”

He added: “You’ve got the (David) Hallmark faction (current board) who want Nunney Way but, in my view, are blinkered in looking at the cost implications of it.

“£1.6m of Nunnery Way has got to go on payments towards roads, drainage, sewerage and water. We have a project which we think is more in tune with the city.

“It gives the council chance to release a piece of land for whatever they want to do with it and is in a fantastic catchment area for the football club.

“We would intend that there will be a new football ground in Worcester, all being well, for September 2012.”