MPs debate homeless football club

The plight of a football club left homeless by last summer's floods is to be discussed in Parliament.

Meadow Park, the home of Gloucester City FC, was destroyed after lying under 6ft of water for several days. Its pitch has now become overgrown.

The Southern League club currently plays in Cirencester and has failed to find a new site in its home city.

Gloucester's Labour MP Parmjit Dhanda is to raise concerns about the club's future at Westminster.

Mr Dhanda said: "Devoted fans are doing 40-mile round trips to home games.

"That's ridiculous, the size of Gloucester, the catchment we have, we should have a successful football team actually playing to decent size gates in the city."

'Being patient'

It was the third time the stadium had been flooded in 21 years.

Water swamped the entire pitch at Meadow Park, reaching as high as the crossbars on the goalposts.

The stadium, changing rooms, club house, kitchen and shop were left under several feet of water.

The facilities had recently been renovated.

Chairman of the Supporters' Trust Phil Warren said he hoped Monday's debate at Westminster will speed things up.

"It's just about galvanising things, making the connections so that the planners and the councillors and the executive body of the club altogether can actually make something that we can turn into a plan," he said.

"If we can see that something is going to happen over the next 18 months or so, we'll be very much happier.

"We're good at being patient, but it can't last forever really."

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