Selby ground move in flood delay

Selby Chairman Mike Dunne hopes the study will be finished within the next couple of months.

Selby Town's proposed ground move will require environment agency approval because of flooding issues.

Both the present site at Flaxley Road and the new one earmarked alongside Selby College are low-lying locations.

Club Chairman Mike Dunne told BBC Radio York: "(We are doing) an in-depth study on the implications of flooding because both are near to water courses."

Selby came within inches of serious flooding in November 2000 and was badly affected by the floods of June 2007.

Dunne added: "We've been working with Selby District Council for some while and we hope to move (from Flaxley Road) to a new purpose-built centre adjacent to Selby College.

There will be about six football pitches with ours being the centrepiece of all this.

"We haven't got planning permission yet but (the flooding concern) is the only outstanding issue that is left to resolve."

We need all these extra pitches to move the club forward Mike Dunne

The new ground will improve the club's long-term potential.

In the short-term the club's current ground at Flaxley Road has just been passed fit for the Unibond League, should Town qualify for promotion from the NCEL Premier Division.

With three games to go Town are seventh and the highest they are likely to finish is fifth, but Dunne said: "One year a team that finished fourth got promoted, it's how all the other leagues shuffle up and what spaces there are."

Only one team above Selby in the NCEL, Glapwell, has met Unibond grading.

Despite Flaxley Road's grading Dunne said: "To develop the club, we've got eight teams, we need all these extra pitches to enable the club to move forward."