The future of Cromer Town Football Club will be under the floodlights at a public meeting tomorrow night.

Club chiefs are remaining tight-lipped over the specific reasons they have called the 7.30pm meeting on Thursday April 7, at their Cabbell Park ground, on Mill Road.

But in a brief statement the club said its purpose was 'to update people on the future of Cabbell Park and what this means for the football club.' Club chairman Paul Jarvis declined to comment further.

North Norfolk District Council (NNDC), which is responsible for Cabbell Park, is negotiating with the owner of the former golf practice ground, on Overstrand Road, which it hopes to convert into a sports hub for the town's adult and youth football clubs, plus other sports groups.

If successful, the council will finance the project by selling Cabbell Park for development with a medical centre and, at a later date, homes.

Tomorrow's meeting coincides with an anticipated detailed planning application for a new medical centre to be built on the site, fronting Mill Road.

An NNDC spokesman said the application was expected this month and a provisional date of September 1 had been set for making the land available for the development.

The centre will provide a new home for the Cromer Group Practice which has outgrown its nearby Overstrand Road premises.

NNDC leader Tom FitzPatrick said: 'The council's priority is to improve housing and infrastructure and improve people's health and wellbeing.

'This scheme has the potential to answer both those priorities by enabling a modern-day medical facility to be built while providing improved sports playing fields for the community to use.'

Meanwhile work is under way to shift the football pitch within the site to make way for the medical centre. The new pitch will be ready for use in mid-August.

A planning application has been submitted, on behalf of the district council, for match officials' changing rooms at the Cromer Academy sports centre, and for a path and gate to link the academy to Cabbell Park, which covers an area of 1.69 hectares (4.7 acres).

Football chiefs have said in the past that the club could not survive without vital cash generated from the use of its clubhouse and car boot sales held at Cabbell Park.