An action plan is being devised by Shrewsbury Town Football Club to prevent future incidents of crowd disorder following arrests at a recent derby game.

The club also needs a safety certificate ahead of the Elton John concert taking place in June 2011. Police were called to Town’s match against Hereford United on November 23 when more than 100 people were involved in disturbances.

A Safety Advisory Group, set up to monitor safety of sports grounds, had attended to view the club’s operational procedures in action.

But following the game the advisory group met with club officials.

It is hoped the resulting action plan will prevent similar incidents in the future and its success will be under review.

Ian Bebbington, operations and commercial manager at Shrewsbury Town, said the actions plan involved a number of different elements.

He said: “We have been in discussions with the Safety Advisory Group following the Hereford United match.

“When there is an incident like this it is important to look at what lesson can be learnt.

“We are looking at a number of things as part of the plan, including how many stewards we have at the ground and security around the north west corner.

“We are also looking at whether we should have left the Shrewsbury Town flag up at the match.”

The work of Safety Advisory Group was reported to members of Shropshire Council’s strategic licensing committee, on Wednesday, as part of the Safety of Sports Grounds annual report.

The section of the report about Greenhous Meadow said: “A Safety Advisory Group comprising of West Mercia Police, West Midlands Ambulance Service, Shropshire Fire and Rescue and the Football Licensing Authority now meets with representatives of Shrewsbury Town management team on a quarterly basis.

“The recent Shrewsbury Town v Hereford United match, an important local derby, was attended by the Safety Advisory Group.

Several people were arrested for offences at the match including assaults on police and club stewards.

Police were brought in after identifying potential for trouble through CCTV.

By Sam Pinnington