£4.5m town football plan being drawn up

A £4.5 million project to create a 1,200-seater indoor sports hall and a five-a-side football centre in Telford is being drawn up.

AFC Telford and Telford College of Arts and Technology are working together to provide a range of community and regional sports facilities focussing on football, basketball, netball and gymnastics.

They would also include the town's first full-sized third generation artificial pitch at TCAT as well as grass pitches.

A joint bid has been submitted to Sport England, which has left AFC Telford with costs of about £30,000, a report to a council cabinet meeting on May 11 says.

Cabinet members are being recommended to give a £15,000 grant to the club to help.

And subject to the success of the Sport England bid councillors are being urged to recommend 150 Haybridge House be sold, to raise council funding for the project. AFC Telford would also be given a 150-year lease with a peppercorn rent of £1 a year for the Bucks Head Stadium and AFC Learning Centre in Wellington as part of the proposals.

The lease for the Haybridge Road garage site would also be transferred to the football club for a 150-year peppercorn rent to allow the development of the five-a-side centre under the project.

The report says of the Sport England bid: "The bid has been encouraged by the council as it would provide a number of high quality sports facilities which have been identified as priorities by the local community, sports clubs and regional partners."