Ground work

However, an important meeting involving all the major parties will take place before the blueprint is lodged, when it is hoped agreement over the future of the running track at Huntington will finally be decided.

That top-level meeting, being arranged by City of York Council and scheduled for mid-September, will be attended by officials from the football club, the University of York, Nestl Rowntree Athletics Club and officials from UK Athletics.

Talks will also be held with York City Knights RL Club.

The football club have conducted a feasibility study about moving the track to the Heslington campus, which they say is necessary if their planned move to Huntington Stadium is to be viable.

Last month, council leisure chiefs, who had previously called on the football club to retain the track at Huntington and redevelop the stadium gradually, indicated relocating the track was possible.

While confident City's stadium plan would be submitted soon, City director Ian McAndrew stressed the Minstermen needed agreement from all the parties before that significant step could be taken.

"I do not want to submit a planning application until after this meeting in mid-September, when everyone will come together and we can hopefully establish once and for all a plan that will work," he told the Evening Press.

"It has to be a plan that works for everyone, not just the football club but also the athletes and the University of York.

"I would hope though that by the third or fourth week in September we will be in a position to submit our planning application.

"I just want to make sure that when it is submitted all the parties involved know all about it and there will be no major surprises."

Aside from getting approval from the athletes who use the facility and the University of York for the switch, funding the track relocation is still a major issue.

However, the Evening Press understands the football club has commissioned its own report which estimates the switch would cost between £250,000 and £300,000.

That is almost half what the City of York Council had said moving the track would cost but confirms an Evening Press report, published in July, which revealed a similar albeit smaller track was built at Durham University for less than £200,000.

Despite having conducted their own feasibility study into relocating the track, McAndrew stressed the football club was not intending to impose its findings on the athletes.

"We have to be certain what we are looking at is acceptable to them," he admitted.

"We are happy that it will give them county-standard facilities but they may want more and we have to try and make sure they are satisfied.

"We certainly do not want another sport to suffer like we have done, with the prospect of being pushed out to a new venue with unsatisfactory facilities."

McAndrew said resolving traffic and transport issues at Huntington ahead of the football club's proposed move in 2004 was as significant as resolving the long-running track saga.

"It is probably the biggest issue," he admitted.

"We have to take into account the business community at Monk's Cross and also the local community in Huntington."

Updated: 10:53 Tuesday, September 02, 2003