Colchester United's new stadium faces a delay.
A planning application for the stadium on the Cuckoo Farm and Severalls site was set to go before committee this month but has been put back awaiting further negotiations.
Colchester MP Bob Russell is calling for every U's fan to urge each candidate in the upcoming elections to make a public commitment to approve the stadium by no later than next season.
He said a decision was anticipated this month on the stadium.
But he said a progress report sent to him by the council revealed the decision has been put off until July.
He said the council seemed less enthusiastic and committed to the new stadium than they were for a proposed £16 million arts centre in the town.
Mr Russell said: "When one looks at how council officers support the arts in the Colchester - which I also do - the contrast with how they support Colchester United and the new stadium project is light years apart.
"Yet Colchester United does more to promote the name of Colchester around the country than any other single organisation in the town.
"We should be supporting both the arts and sport in equal measure. They are both important."
A spokesman for Colchester Council planning department said: "It is fair to say as a planning department we were hoping to get the application to committee as early as April.
"But negotiations are ongoing and it hasn't been possible to get it to committee at that early stage."
Published Thursday, April 10, 2003
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