Chelmsford City Football Club chairman has given the borough council an ultimatum - come up with a site for a new ground within two months or the club will die.

Peter Stroud, chairman for the last two years, has withdrawn a planning application put before the council in July for a 6,000-seater ground in Boreham, Chelmsford.

He said today: "I withdrew the application because the council made it obvious it was not going to accept the plans.

"It also refused to enter into any dialogue while the plans were on the table and we could not discuss alternative sites."

Now club and borough officials are due to meet on Friday to find a way forward.

And Mr Stroud warned: "If we get nowhere I will leave the club, the manger Gary Bellamy will leave and the club will just die. That will be a very sad day for the town."

He said he did not mind where the club - which currently plays its home games in Billericay - had a new ground, as long as it had one.

Steve Dorrington, Chelmsford City's press spokesman added: "We must look on the bright side - something good is going to happen to the club sooner or later.

"But it does seem that the council can find the space for everyone else in the town apart from the football club.

"We have hundreds at our matches. We have the highest attendance in the division even though the ground is miles away. If we returned to the town it could be thousands.

"I hope it does not come to the club folding, but I do understand the frustration of the chairman who is so enthusiastic and has ploughed a lot of money into it."

A council spokesman said Mr Stroud had been in touch with them to say he intended withdrawing his application but no formal notice had been received.

"The borough council would be very happy to continue discussions. We are still firmly committed to seeing Chelmsford City remain in Chelmsford.

"We believe there may be other alternative sites and we are happy to discuss them."

He added Mr Stroud had known the Boreham site was not included for development in the present borough plan.

"He has been told that the Highways Agency and Essex County Council need detailed information on the traffic likely to be generated by the new development before commenting on the planning application.

"The council has not been delaying a decision on the application but has been awaiting all the information required from the applicant."

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.