Shrewsbury Town fan group backs safe standing at New Meadow

A fans group for Shrewsbury Town has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise £75,000 in order to install 550 rail seats at their New Meadow ground.

Shrewsbury first revealed their interest in safe-standing at the end of June and Tuesday's initiative comes a day after Liverpool fans voted overwhelmingly in favour of bringing rail seats to Anfield.

If successful, the Sky Bet League One club will become the first in England or Wales to bring a safe-standing section back to an all-seater ground.

Football grounds in the top two divisions have been all-seater by law ever since Lord Justice Taylor's report into the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, which left 96 Liverpool fans dead.

At the launch of the plan, Shrewsbury's chief executive Brian Caldwell said: "Although the stadium is an all-seater at present, it is not required to be so by law.

"We were therefore able to utilise a process recently put in place by the Sports Ground Safety Authority to enable EFL clubs not subject to the all-seater legislation to apply for consent to install rail seating as safe-standing accommodation."

Rail seats are flipped up and locked in place when fans are using them as standing areas, and there is a safety barrier that separates each row to prevent surges. To help with crowd control, fans are assigned a space that corresponds to the seat number.

The crowdfunding site is the idea of the Shrewsbury Town Supporters Parliament and its joint chair Roger Groves explained the appeal of rail seats at the launch.

"Being able to stand in a proper standing area is something that many of our fans have missed in the 10 years since we moved from Gay Meadow, where over half the crowd used to stand. So there is great support for our plan to introduce rail seating to enable fans to stand safely," said Groves.