Whitehaven chairman Tom Todd hopes the club will be out of special measures and able to press on with plans for next season by the end of the week.

The restrictions, which are making it difficult for the club to build a squad for 2019, were imposed by the sport’s governing body during the season just ended, but Todd is optimistic they will be lifted soon to allow new coach Gary Charlton to make progress.

“We’re still in special measures and that’s an ongoing thing,” Todd said.

“They want forecasts and figures up to the end of the year and next season, and we’ve provided them with all of the information we think we need to so we’re just waiting for them to come back and say ‘That’s fine’ or ‘You need to tweak here or there.’

“I would hope it would be some time this week, but I said that last week.

“It’s a day-by-day thing, we’re in contact with them every day.”

The club is waiting to move out of special measures before it can make more announcements about plans for next season, but Todd stressed that he has no issue with the RFL and understands they are just following the process.

He believes the addition of Andrew Canavan and Jason Ball as directors has breathed new life into the club and said it is now on the mend after a tough period, with new sponsorship also secured.

The club also hopes to add another new name to the board in the near future.

Todd added: “With the extra people in the background it’s really created a buzz, because we were struggling at the tail-end of last season with numbers.

“With Andrew, Jason and another announcement to come shortly, that’s given us a real boost.

“Financially we’ve turned a bit of a corner; we’ve got some new sponsorship and that’s helped us greatly.

“The last couple of months it was pretty 50/50 whether we would survive and a lot of hard work has gone in to turn the corner.”

Hemel Stags have withdrawn from Betfred League 1, with plans being drawn up for an 11-team fixture list next season.