The takeover of Torquay United has been finalised and is now under the ownership of the Chris Boyce consortium. Thankfully all the uncertainity has now been resolved and a start can be made on preparing the Gulls for what will hopefully be a short stay in the Blue Square Premium League.

The members of the consortium are Chris and Mark Boyce (the sons of former chairman Tony Boyce); Alex Rowe (former boss of CLS); Simon Baker; Ian Hayman (a former director under the Mike Bateson era); Tony Carter; Eric Coote; James O'Dwyer; and local lottery winner Paul Bristow. Alex Rowe will be the club Chairman, and Simon Baker is the vice-chair.

The key thing about the consortium is that all of its members are locally based and clearly have the interests of the football club as their top priority. Their first appointment has been to bring Colin Lee back to the club as Chief Executive, with the next the appointment of a new manager.

Colin Lee has confirmed that Torquay United will remain full-time club, and are aiming for a minimum of 20 players with the first team squad. "We will try to get the team assembled as quick as we can for next season. We won't go into the pre-season having all the players on board - we will try to do that, but it's unlikely."

The members of the Gloucester Gulls welcome the new owners to Torquay United and trust that after all of the disappointment of the last three seasons that this is the beginning of the return of success to Plainmoor.