POSSIBLE alternative locations for a new Worcester City FC stadium can today be revealed - after confidential talks were held behind closed doors.

We can lift the lid on the outcomes from private negotiations between the club and Worcester City Council, including:

- Council chiefs have suggested club officials reconsider the Cinderella sports ground in St John's, but it has been immediately discounted

- The 'county sports' playing fields off Claines Lane, where the Archdale 73 side used to play, has been floated as another possible alternative but has also been rejected

- During the confidential talks council bosses got out a map and questioned the trust over several other patches of land, some of which the trust says appeared to sit in the Wychavon council district

Ever since club officials and the supporter's trust sat down with the council's leadership at the start of March, the details of the discussions have been kept under wraps by Guildhall chiefs.

During a full council meeting this week Cllr Mike Johnson, the cabinet member responsible for sport, did admit to talking through "alternative sites" but insisted it would "remain confidential".

After a plea from the Labour Party to make progress he said it was up to the club to make the next step, but insisted he would "remain silent" on the Perdiswell application, which is being dealt with independently by planning officers.

After the meeting Rob Crean, from the supporter's trust, which has created the planning application for a 4,100 capacity ground at Perdiswell Park, said he wanted to make it clear they are not interested in other sites.

"They went through several pieces of land with us and said 'have you considered this' and 'have you considered that'," he said.

"The Cinderella ground was one of them, but we've already ruled that out a long time ago, then there was the old Archdales sites off Claines Lane, but that's too small and how would the traffic cope?

"They were also other bits of grass here and there, but we can't afford another planning application without financial assistance from them.

"We have still not seen a convincing alternative to Perdiswell - as far as we're concerned that's where we want to go."

He said the Cinderella sports ground is bogged down in complicated long-term land ownership issues, including a 'sporting use' lease that will expire after 25 years, meaning it could then fall prey to property developers.

The Bransford Road site is leased from Arndale Properties, and last year secured planning permission for a £365,000 overhaul in a project led by the Heart of Worcestershire College to bring part of the land back into sporting use with a new cricket pavilion.

The Claines Lane pitches are still used by some football teams on weekends, like Worcester Raiders, but the site is in far less demand after the demise of the old senior Archdales 73 team.

During the council meeting, Cllr Johnson insisted he was "fully committed" to getting the club home.

The Perdiswell Park planning application was submitted back in April 2014.

The team is still exiled in Kidderminster although it will relocate to Bromsgrove FC next season.