SHAUN Hearn has issued a statement backing the proposal for Dorchester Town to become a Community Benefit Society (CBS).

The former Magpies’ chairman insists he will be voting in favour of the community structure at the club’s upcoming AGM on Thursday, December 11.

A statement from Hearn on given the club’s website reads: “When I handed over 50 per cent of my majority shareholding I genuinely believed it was in the best interests of the club to do so and that the Trust would achieve the targets they had set themselves to take full control of the club.

"Unfortunately this has not transpired and in hindsight it is obvious that the agreement between myself and the Trust has actually had an adverse effect on the club over the last few years, I have no doubt that everybody had honourable intentions within these negotiations but instead of pulling everybody together it has actually divided the club further.

"In September this year I approached the Trust board to ask for the return of my shares that they had been gifted as I felt that the club had not moved forward to the assurances I had been given and the targets set were never, in my opinion, going to be achieved. My proposal was not accepted by a unanimous vote of the Trust board.

"In order to try and find the best solution to move the club forward, the current board of directors at DTFC asked key stakeholders including members of the current board, the Trust, DTYFC and major shareholders, Adam Robertson, Paul Harris and myself to form a steering group.

"Obviously we all want the football club to be successful and I personally believe that the CBS route is now the best way forward for the club. All involved will need to pull together as one because the club will be as one instead of separate groups with their own agendas.

"I have full confidence that this steering group will implement a structure that will move the club forwards and that the good times will be back in the very near future.

"As a group we are all fully aware that we need to learn from our mistakes, we have one chance to get this right, we will have to take calculated risks, speculate to accumulate and have targets that are high but achievable. We need to have people in place that have the skills to generate income that will allow us to compete at a level that is acceptable to our supporters, of course the club needs to be sustainable but I do not believe that means that we should just accept that we can only compete at lower levels than the Conference South Division.

"I appreciate that it’s not easy for any shareholder to give up their shares lightly, especially if they have invested hard earned money for them, and personally for me it is a massive wrench to hand over my shares but now we have an equal opportunity to take the club forward together and as one we will be much stronger, therefore I will be voting in favour of the CBS route at the AGM.”