ORGANISERS of the Buy Our Bury (BOB) organisation are looking to pay back small local businesses who stand to lose out after the Shakers go into liquidation.

A 14-day stay of execution was today granted at the High Court in London to allow HMRC to settle a £54,000 claim with the club over unpaid National Insurance.

The adjournment, sought by HMRC over a £1m debt for unpaid tax, will not prevent the Shakers from being liquidated but could, says BOB founder Alan Skelton, give his organisation time to mount a claim to court for further time which will enable them to settle some of the many smallers debts which will be left by the clubs dissolution.

“The offer we want to make to the judge was to give us access to Bury’s books, the files, the names of the creditors so that we can pay back the smaller businesses who stand to get nothing when the company is liquidated,” he told The Bury Times.

“As things stand, all the available funds will go to Capital Bridging Finance. But we want to start a fund which will allow us to pay as many as possible.

“From the lady who is owed £150 for sweets in the club shop to travel companies which are owed £10,000 – these are the ones who will get nothing and I want the fans to help us pay that.”

BOB say they have received pledges from supporters over the last few months totalling around £233,000 and will be seeking approval to release some of that money to help businesses who have been left high and dry by the Shakers’ demise.

“If we want to be a community club we have to look after our own,” Mr Skelton said. “We have to do right by people.

“We have received significant pledges so far and we’ll be asking them to be converted into money we can pay off some of the smaller creditors and let us get that straight.

“This should be a community club but for a long time, maybe 2013, it hasn’t felt that way.”

Mr Skelton is also part of a group looking to form a phoenix club in the near future which has received widespread support among the Bury fans.

Supporter groups from various clubs including Chester, Wrexham, AFC Wimbledon, Aldershot and Leyton Orient have also lend their support on what will ne necessary to launch a new club in the non-league.

“There has been tremendous enthusiasm for us to press on, to get on with it, to get Steve Dale out,” he said. “There will be people who pick the bones in this process, we know that, but the bottom line is that nobody will want a club playing in the non-league with £10m of debt.

“We need to look forward. The reaction to what we have said so far has been hugely positive and if I’ve had any flak, it has been minimal.

“But the phoenix group have got some considerable talents among them. The way people want to move on is just fantastic.

“The aim is to establish a club in as high a league as possible and we’ve had more than 170 volunteers with a number of specialities – governance, law, finance.

“We are looking into the viability of buying back Gigg Lane. Whether it is possible we don’t know.

“I know, however, that there are certain things going our way at the moment.”