An emergency meeting was today called to ask Colchester United for reassurances over the club's future.

Colchester Council Labour group leader Tim Young has called the emergency meeting for leaders of each political party to meet with the town clerk and U's chairman.

The move comes after it was announced yesterday manager Mick Wadsworth would be leaving the club.

He is the second manager to part company with Colchester United in the last eight months and his departure came just two weeks after managing director Stephen Gage quit the club.

The ambitious new stadium is planned to be built at Cuckoo Farm with the hope that work may begin next year.

But Mr Young said a meeting first needed to be held to lift any question marks the council might have over the club's future.

He said: "The council is planning to invest a large amount of public resources which runs into millions of pounds into the new community stadium, which will be primarily for Colchester United.

"We want to make sure the club has a secure future. It has lost two managers and a managing director in the last eight months and we want assurance from the chairman that there is a secure future for the club."

A spokeswoman for Colchester United said as far as chairman Peter Heard was concerned everything to do with the new stadium was on track.

She added he was aware the meeting was on the cards and would be delighted to attend if he was requested to do so.

Mr Young said the emergency meeting would take place in the next two weeks to discuss the current situation.

He added the council would be concerned about any company that it had dealings with which had lost two managers and a managing director in such a short space of time.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.