OFFICIALS at Lancaster City FC have put together a bid for a grant of about £50,000 from the city council to rebuild the ground.

And they want to bid for a loan from the council at a future date. A similar proposal for an interest free loan from Morecambe FC was granted for their new stand.

A council source told the Citizen that club officials would put together the bid when they have exhausted all other avenues for cash from bodies like the Football Trust. It's thought the council would consider funding any difference through a loan probably requiring guarantors. The cost of the groundwork would be more than £200,000.

Club officials would not confirm the figures involved but did concede that a proposal had been put before the council. As yet the club has not received planning permission for the work which would make Giant Axe acceptable to the Football Conference.

Blues' chairman, Ian Sharp, said: "I don't want to talk about figures yet until everything has gone through the council. That would be presumptuous. We want something similar to what Morecambe had." Club secretary Mike Sparks said City's bid would not be for the same amounts of money as Morecambe's.

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