TRURO City Football Club could be set for a return to their home ground in the city after revealing plans to redevelop the ground had reached a standstill.

The National League South team have been playing their home games at Torquay United after being evicted from their home at Treyew Road in Truro.

Treyew Road has planning permission for a retail development which is set to have a Lidl supermarket.

However club chairman Peter Masters told a packed public meeting for supporters that developers Helical Retail were no longer moving ahead with the plans.

Mr Masters told the club’s supporters that Helical was looking to secure someone else to take the project forward but said that if they don’t then the club could return home.

He said: “Helical have been struggling to find suitable tenants for this development, that has been brought about because ot the state of the retail market. People have been going out of business.”

Mr Masters said that Lidl had committed to the project and Helical had been set to build the budget supermarket first in the hope that they would be able to secure tenants for the other planned units.

Due to that the club decided to play their home games at Torquay as Helical wanted to start building in October.

Masters told supporters that after they had agreed to move to Torquay they were then told by Helical in August that they were no longer going ahead with the development.

He explained that Helical wanted to try and seek someone to take over the development and so paid Truro City £20,000 to stay at Torquay.

Masters explained that Helical has until Tuesday (October 16) to find someone to take it over or Lidl is allowed to walk away from the development. At that point the club will make a decision on whether to return to Treyew Road.

The chairman and his co-chairman Philip Perryman told supporters that they are committed to the club and would continue to fight.

Masters said: “Personally I would prefer us to be back at Treyew Road as it is the home of Truro City.”

He said that he had spoken to the league chief executive about returning to the ground and said that they supported it.

After supporters asked whether the club could buy back the ground Masters explained that he had been told that would cost £3.5m and even said that he considered setting up a crowdfunding appeal to raise the money to buy it back.

He said that it was the worst decision made by the trustees of the club to sell the ground to developers for £1 in the first place.

Masters also said that the club was still committed to be a partner in the Stadium for Cornwall.

Truro City was due to provide £2million of funding for the stadium which was due to come from developers Helical as part of the development agreement.

Masters said that although that was at risk he said that the club was still “very much” part of the stadium and welcomed the offer from Truro and Penwith College and the Cornish Pirates to provide £1m each to cover Truro City’s funding if it fails to come through.

He said: “We will keep supporting the Stadium for Cornwall, that will be our home.

“I would love us to be here (Treyew Road) but the reality is it is gone, unless a miracle happens it is gone.”

One supporter paid tribute to Masters and Perryman for “saving” the club and continuing to support the club bringing applause from the rest of the supporters.

A clearly touched Masters and Perryman thanked them for their kind words.

The Stadium for Cornwall is set to be built at a site outside Threemilestone and will initially have a 6,000 capacity.

It is being led by the Cornish Pirates along with Truro City FC, Truro and Penwith College and leisure firm GLL.

The £14m stadium is being funded by the partners and is also waiting to hear whether it will receive £3m from the Government which will be match funded by Cornwall Council. It has been indicated that the announcement on the Government funding will be made in the Autumn budget statement later this month.