COLCHESTER United say they have no plans to introduce safe standing at the Weston Homes Community Stadium.

League One side Shrewsbury Town, whose Greenhous Meadow home holds a similar-sized capacity to the 10,000-seater Community Stadium, yesterday become the first English side to apply for rail seats at their ground.

Some U’s fans in the South Stand choose to stand during their team’s matches, despite the ground being all-seater.

And due to its relatively young age, the Community Stadium is one of 29 in the Football League which can currently apply for safe standing.

But U’s general manager Tim Waddington told the Daily Gazette: “There is some demand for safe standing at football grounds and I’m sure football will continue that debate.

“The only time I think it will happen at our club is if we develop the stadium.

“I don’t think that ripping out perfectly good seats at considerable cost and then putting in standing is something that we’re thinking of doing.”

Shrewsbury plan to install around 500 seats at a cost estimated at £50,000-£75,000, which will be funded by a crowdfunding campaign.

And Premier League club West Bromwich Albion have also recently shown an interest in re-introducing standing sections at The Hawthorns, on a trial basis.

The issue was on the agenda at the EFL's Summer Conference in Portugal, earlier this month.

Long-time U’s supporter and Colne Radio Football Show presenter Bryn Griffiths, who is a South Stand regular, believes U’s fans would back the introduction of safe standing at the Community Stadium.

Griffiths said: “I think the time has come for safe standing in this country and I believe that once one club has done it, it will break the dam and many more will follow.

“I’m yet to meet a Colchester fan who isn’t in favour of safe standing – some might not want to be part of it and would prefer to sit but they still see the merit in it and see that it would improve the atmosphere.

“At Colchester, fans speak about getting back to the spirit of the Barside and Layer Road and I think that’s what we need to do at the Community Stadium.

“There’s no going back and we have to make the stadium work but just imagine if we had safe standing in the South Stand.

“I understand that the club is worried about the cost but I think if safe standing did happen, it would really bring the stadium alive.

“The club has done a fantastic job with the family stand (East Stand) and under-11 incentives but once they reach the age of 16, those young people will eventually want to go with their mates and we wouldn’t want to lose them.

“It wouldn’t be like the terraces we knew back in the 1970s and 1980s – you can get significantly more people in but without the kind of surges you saw back then.”

This summer marks the ninth anniversary of the Community Stadium’s opening.

It is not covered by the all-seater stadia legislation which allowed clubs in English football’s third and fourth tiers to keep terraces that were in place before 1994, when standing was banned in the top two following the 1989 Hillsborough disaster which claimed the lives of 96 Liverpool fans.

What are your views on the issue of safe standing at football matches? Should it be introduced at Colchester United?

Email jonathan.waldron@newsquest.co.uk with your views.