Coventry City Council leader George Duggins has said that if legal action is their primary objective, then Sisu should divest themselves of Coventry City FC.
Cllr Duggins was speaking at a Coventry City Council full meeting this afternoon and said: “It would help all parties if Sisu and Coventry City Football Club were to present the council with written plans on their new stadium and what they would be seeking in terms of planning and enablement of the development.
“I have made it clear repeatedly that any pre-planning application and planning application including highways environmental assessments and neighbour considerations would be dealt with in the same way as any other applicant. For there to be any suggestion that any applicant would not be treated even handedly is totally and utterly erroneous.
“Indeed, council officers have talked to Coventry City Football Club around issues that relate to a relocation from the Ricoh Arena in recent years, the details of which I will not go into today.
“I can confirm colleagues that only this afternoon officers are meeting with agents of the football club. So therefore we are fulfilling one of the issues that Sisu are so interested in, that they are being talked to.
“So colleagues let me say that this issue needs to be drawn to a close, we need to get to a position in which Coventry City do not move out of Coventry again. I cannot see an easy way of ensuring that does not happen other than the legals are traded off for a deal at the Ricoh.
“If legal action is their primary objective then it is my view that it is time for them to divest themselves of Coventry City Football Club and allow the football club to have its future in this City playing at the Ricoh so that everyone can enjoy the progress of Mark Robins’ impressive young team.”