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Toon fans will lodge a legal bid to safeguard St James’ Park as a city centre asset.

An open forum is being planned to discuss Mike Ashley’s efforts to offload a strip of land adjacent to St James’ Park in a multi-million pound deal.

Some supporters claim the sale would limit future growth at the stadium and rule-out any efforts to expand the ground and capacity.

Now members of the Newcastle United Supporters’ Trust have lodged an application to the council for the stadium to be listed as an “asset of community value”.

Under the legislation, the status would mean the ground cannot be sold without the local community being told about it, and being given the opportunity to bid for it themselves.

It’s understood it is a “symbolic gesture” by the supporters which would bring St James’ Park in line with a number of other grounds, including Manchester United’s Old Trafford and Liverpool’s Anfield.

The NUST also said they were looking to enlist a planning expert who could held develop the trust’s “position regarding future development”.

A spokesman said: “We are concerned that future development of this land, potentially unsympathetic to the future expansion of St James’ Park, may act to inhibit the future growth under future ownership arrangements.”

Last month it emerged Newcastle had placed a 1.62-acre plot of land on Strawberry Place, next to St James’ Park, on the market with a multi-million-pound price-tag.

Currently a car park, the land is owned by Newcastle United Holdings Ltd and is seen as the only possible location for expansion of the Tyneside club. Once it is sold it could be developed into a hotel, student accommodation or a retail outlet once sold.

The current application to protect the ground is being led by Supporters Direct, the governing body for supporters’ trusts.

The NUST spokesman said: “So far the trust has made a Freedom of Information Act application to discover the identity of potential developers in order to open dialogue and explain our position.

“Unfortunately, Mike Ashley’s employees at Newcastle United have so far declined to answer any of the media’s questions on the subject so we are unable to outline any safeguards the club has put in place to safe-guard the club’s future growth potential and indeed the destination and use of any monies raised from the sale of a club asset.

“Officials at United working for Mike Ashley have also failed to notify the land-owners, Nexus of their intentions also.”

Under the Localism Act 2011, the council is obliged to consider applications received to list “assets of community value”.

A number of criteria need to be met and these include whether its current use furthers the social well-being or social interests of the local community and if there is a realistic prospect of such use continuing.

Social interest includes cultural interests, recreational interests and sporting interests.

Last year Liverpool’s supporters’ union, The Spirit Of Shankly, successfully applied for the club’s world famous Anfield stadium was recognised as an “asset of community value”.

And in September Manchester United fans scored a long-awaited victory over the Glazer family after the club’s owners conceded defeat in their attempts to fight the listing of Old Trafford as an asset.