YORK City Supporters Trust chairman Ian Hey has agreed to answer fans' questions at an East Riding Minstermen branch meeting next month.

The event will be held at Malton's Railway Club in Welham Road on Tuesday, May 10 and has been arranged following chairman Jason McGill's approach to the Trust for financial assistance.

McGill, whose company JM Packaging have covered club losses in the past, has estimated that £1million needs to be raised, in his opinion, to make the relegated Minstermen competitive over the next two years, ahead of the move into a new community stadium at Monks Cross.

Back in 2003, the Trust saved the club from extinction and Bootham Crescent from the clutches of former chairman Douglas Craig by becoming majority shareholders.

Three years later, the membership agreed to hand over ownership of the club to McGill's Malton-based business, but retained a 25 per cent interest in City.

But East Riding Minstermen chairman John Uttley has questioned the Trust's current relevance with the committee now boasting just three members - Hey, John Lacey and Martyn Jones.

As an example its inactivity, meanwhile, he also pointed out that esteemed former Trust chairman Steve Beck is still named on their website as serving on the board despite having sadly passed away more than a year ago.

Uttley is hoping the meeting can perhaps act as a catalyst for Trust reinvigoration, depending on Hey's views of what he believes should be the supporters body's role at the club - both in the imminent and more distant future.

The evening will start at 7.30pm and Uttley said: "It will be a question-and-answer session that I will be chairing myself and I'm hoping we will get a good turnout because it's quite an important meeting in my eyes.

"We have chosen a bigger venue than we'd normally use from our branch meetings with that in mind and it can accommodate around 150 people. A lot of people are questioning the Trust and Jason McGill, but what I want to know is what the Trust are doing after the chairman's comments, because it doesn't look like they've been doing much recently.

"Steve Beck is still down on the website as being a Trust board member and, other than donations to the youth team, I don't think the Trust, as 25 per cent owners of the club, have been making any financial contribution towards its running for ten years. I am trying to help them and want to know how we can do that.

"As a branch, we are willing to hand over £500 to the Trust, as long as we see some activity from them. The Trust once raised £600,000 to save the club and, maybe, we can learn from a club like Northampton, who got 2,500 people at a Trust meeting when their club was under threat this season.

"I think, after Jason's comments, we have to at least make an effort to show we are doing something to help, even if it's a token gesture in terms of financial assistance."

Uttley has also invited McGill to attend a similar question-and-answer session at a later date.

The East Riding Minstermen chief has not missed a City league or cup home match for 38 years - a run that stretches back to the start of the 1978/79 season when he was a 14-year-old schoolboy.

He is now 52 and a father of three.

Elsewhere, some might think of it as a bum deal, given City's relegation, but the club are offering the chance for a company or organisation to become the club's new shorts sponsor for the 2016/17 season.

Anybody interested would have their name on display at every league and cup fixture during the campaign.

For further information, contact Dave Hendry at commercial@yorkcityfootballclub.co.uk or call 01904 559501.