A DEAL crucial to the Blues getting their new multi-million pound stadium looks set to fail as a deadline of New Year’s Eve looms.

Sainsbury’s was due to buy the Prospects College site in Fairfax Drive with the sale to complete by December 31.

Due to the lapsing of planning permission for Southend United’s stadium plans and a decision deferred until March, Prospects had offered to extend the sale deadline until April - provided it was agreed by next Monday (31).

However principal Neil Bates says he has had no contact from the retail giant so will terminate the agreeement and seek alternative uses or buyer for the site.

He said: “They have not responded to any of our attempts to make contact and we are forced to conclude that they are no longer interested in reaching agreement with us. We will therefore terminate the agreement on December 31 and this key and vital part of the retail store development will be thrown back into uncertainty along with the new stadium development.”

The Prospects building is at the heart of Sainsbury’s plans to redevelop the Blues’ Roots Hall ground. In return for the land, the supermarket chain has agreed to bankroll the majority of the new 22,000 seat stadium at Fossetts Farm.

Mr Bates added: ”I am just at a loss to know what else Prospects and the council can do to make this development happen. Like the council we have absolutely bent over backwards to accommodate both Sainsbury and Ron Martin. Deadline after deadline has come and gone and the result now is that Prospects, which is a charity, is left holding a blighted site, caught in wrangle between a retailer and a property developer."

But Blues chairman Ron Martin said if necessary it will use the Compulsory Purchase Order it has with Southend Council to force the sale.

Mr Martin said; “Sainsbury’s may not have responded as yet but it’s Christmas. We’d be disappointed if Neil Bates chose to withdraw from the discussion.

“There is no need to rescind the agreement. It may necessitate the club to request the council to CPO Prospects College which hither to we have refrained from doing.

“We’d absolutely go down that road if contact is not maintained.

“I’d be very concerned if anything were to jeopardise or delay the stadium plans and therefore we hope Prospects and Sainsbury’s can sort their position out.

“I expect Neil Bates will receive a reply imminently after Christmas. We’re all aware of the urgency, it’s for that reason we were trying to get a resolution to the renewal of the application last Thursday. Unfortunately it did not happen.

“But it’s not beyond any of us resolving it if we’re all on the same page - the council, Prospects, Sainsbury’s and the club.”

Mr Bates though said that college trustees will meet in the New Year and may look for another buyer, but may also lease the building or even use it again as a training centre.