COUNCIL leader David Renard says they are willing to work with Swindon Town Supporters’ Trust in their bid to buy to County Ground, but concedes their initial bid is well short of the mark.

The Trust tabled an offer to Swindon Borough Council of £1.1million last June to buy the freehold of the County Ground and announced plans at their annual meeting earlier this month to transform the existing stadium.

With the football club, who are currently on a rolling repairs and maintenance lease, seemingly not keen on purchasing the ground, the Trust, chaired by Steve Mytton, have been garnering public support for their proposed move.

Coun Renard admits that the attempt to purchase the council asset falls short of the valuation they have, which the Adver understands to be closer to the £2million mark, but says the will is there to do business “I have always been very keen that we should, if at all possible, try and come to some sort of arrangement with the Trust,” he told the Adver.

“Given the restrictions on council resources at the moment, it is hard to see that we could afford to spend much money on the stadium, whereas the Trust would have access to funds from other areas that we couldn’t access.

“In principle, I am very keen to see if we can do something with them.

“The issue is, they have made an offer but it is significantly below the valuation that has been put on it by the property officers and the council.

“It is of course, at the moment, a wholly owned asset by the tax payers of Swindon and to effectively sell it off on the cheap wouldn’t be in the best interest in the tax payers of Swindon.

“If they were to come up with an offer that is much nearer to the valuation that has been put on it, I think we might be in a position to do a deal.”

The Trust claim they put forward the offer of £1.1million, in which a window until March 2018 to complete the transaction was requested, based on previous talks and verbal agreements with the council.

However, Coun Renard, who admits financial pressures to deliver adult and child social care in the borough have meant that they cannot funnel funds into maintaining assets such as the County Ground, says they have made it clear from day one what they believe the value to be.

“I think they have come in with their best offer, bearing in mind they still want some resources to invest in the ground if and when the transaction is done,’’ he added.

“There has certainly been no moving of the goalposts, it’s just a position over the value of it and what they can afford.

“If we could do something to improve the ground for the supporters and to enable it to be a more attractive location for more supporters or other events, I would be delighted.”