On the day that staff of Ashford’s Julie Rose Stadium are due to receive a letter telling them whether or not they have a job as a month-long redundancy period comes to an end, stadium bosses and Ashford Borough Council have still not reached an agreement about the stadium’s future.

The future of the stadium is hanging in the balance as funding has been cut and time is running out as the current agreement runs out at the end of this month.

Since the threat of cuts hit the headlines last month, a 700 name petition and group on social-networking website Facebook have demonstrated huge public support for the stadium.

When planning the budget for the next financial year - which begins in less than a fortnight - cash-strapped Ashford Borough Council, the stadium’s main funder, said it could not afford to provide the amount of money stadium bosses say is essential to keep it fully open.

Since then, stadium bosses have been trying to get the council to increase the funding, but discussions between councillors and the chairman of the Julie Rose Stadium Trust, Cllr Peter Davison, have not yet come up a solution.

Cllr Davison, a former Conservative councillor, and now an Ashford Independent, said: “The council has put us in an impossible financial position.”

The chief executive of Ashford Borough Council, David Hill, has now been brought in to try and broker a deal.

Cllr Davison said: “We’re hoping for a sensible offer of agreement.

“We’ve pointed out the damage of these delays.

“I think a common sense business arrangement could have been made in a few weeks - this has been going on for five months.”