Hutchinson determined to relocate Citizens back to City of Durham

Durham City chairman Gary Hutchinson has expressed his determination to help the club return to the city.

It’s just under five years since the Citizens left their former home at New Ferens Park over a dispute with their landlords.

A groundshare deal with Consett saw City host their ‘home’ games at Belle View between November 2015 and April 2017 before securing a similar agreement to move to Willington’s Hall Lane.

There have been a number ofoff-fieldchangesthroughout thatperiodbutworktosecurea returntoDurhamCityhascontinued without success.

However, Hutchinson insisted that the club will be “a great asset” to the city if and when they make a permanent returnhome.Hutchinsonsaid: “The board are working tirelessly to relocate the club to an alternative ground.

“It’s difficult, but we are confident that with the hard workandprogresstheclubhas seen over the last few months, wherever we settle it will be a great asset to that area.

“We aim to make Durham City a club that everyone in Durham is proud of, a club that involves the local communityandimprovespeople’slives through football.

“You could say we’d like to be back to being the “Pride of County Durham” as we were in the decades after 1918 when this great club was formed.”

After suffering an abysmal season on the pitch, only the coronavirus epidemic and the FA’s subsequent decision to voidallresultsduringthecampaign saved the Citizens from relegation into the Wearside League.Anddespitetheuncertaintysurroundingwhenitwill besafefortheon-fieldactionto resume, City are already planning for next season.

Plans for a new academy were announced last month and Hutchinson confirmed earlier this week that the club will revert to their “traditional” colours of black and red for their new home kit.

More importantly, the Citizens are closing in on the appointment of a new manager and could even make an announcement within the next seven days.

It is just over three weeks since Hutchinson told the Echo that they were hoping to bringinamanagerwithChampions League experience and DirectorofFootballJohnWoolnoughadmittedthatheis“very excited” about the future.

He said: “It’s been a very long process due to current world events, but we hope that anannouncementcanbemade next week.”