JOHN Heynes today insisted "good progress" had been made following a lengthy meeting to discuss the future of York City.

As reported in the Evening Press, the Oxfordshire-based millionaire was involved in discussions at Huntington Stadium on Thursday that failed to bring about a solution to the current uncertainty surrounding the club.

However, Heynes, 55, described the talks, involving John Batchelor, Bootham Crescent Holdings, The City of York Council, the Supporters' Trust and John Guildford, the majority shareholder in York City Knights, as "very good natured".

"I felt we made some good progress," he said. "All the people involved in the process attended. Having analysed the situation for a month and having tried to identify where the problems were I have tried to put forward a proposal to move the whole process forward.

"Inevitably, to get an agreement from so many people one has to go step by step and all of it is subject to the football club not going into liquidation."

Heynes was unable to go into any more details as to his proposal.

However, he was keen to stress he was not spearheading a so-called 'Batchelor-Heynes combined bid' and described his role in the process as a "subsidiary".

It is understood his role and involvement centres around the purchase of Bootham Crescent from owners Bootham Crescent Holdings.

Updated: 09:32 Saturday, February 15, 2003