Residents fear loss of £1m funds for sports hub

The new hub will replace outdated facilities at the football club

A football club with "rotting facilities" could soon lose £1m of government funding due to "council delays", charity bosses have said.

A planned revamp of Cheltenham Saracens Football Club and a neighbouring park has planning permission and a grant of almost £500,000, matched by donors.

However, the club's leaders said the money could be withdrawn in under three weeks due to delays by Cheltenham Borough Council in signing a land lease.

The authority said it had "supported the project from the start" but there were issues that needed to be resolved.

Plans for the proposed Petersfield Community and Sports Hub were first put forward six years ago.

They include a single-storey facility with upgraded changing rooms for the football team and social and community spaces, including a bar and kitchen.

The charity overseeing the project, Petersfield Partnership, secured £458,000 from the government's Community Ownership Fund in September 2023.

Graham Roberts said the deadline for spending the government grant is the end of September

Additional funding to cover the £1.1m cost is coming from Big Local, the Football Foundation and other organisations.

Chairman of the football club Graham Roberts said the deadline for spending the government grant is the end of September.

"As volunteers we have worked day and night to get this project ready, but the council won’t commit to a timescale so we just don’t know if we will ever get the go-ahead.

"The clock is ticking, we’re running out of time and so many people will be so disappointed if we are stopped from realising our dreams and the project is dead in the water," he said.

Plans for the hub include a new single-storey facility with upgraded changing rooms for the football team and social and community spaces, including a bar and kitchen.

Chair of Petersfield Partnership Gary Goodhall said: “The football club’s facilities are literally rotting and are in desperate need of replacement.

"The council has a really important role in enabling us to help ourselves, but everything is taking them so long.

"It’s really frustrating, and now we’re worried that we’ll lose our funding."

The council said it remained committed to "supporting the delivery of much-needed facilities that will make a real difference to local people and the wider community".

A spokesperson added: "The reality of land ownership of the site is complicated and not all of it is under council control.

"We're currently going through the legal process to ascertain who owns titles to the various plots.

"The Petersfield Partnership is still hundreds of thousands of pounds short of being able to fund and fully complete the plans they submitted.

"They will risk being in breach of the planning permission they were granted, if they cannot finish what has been agreed."

The Petersfield Partnership has been contacted for a response to the council's comments.