Cheshire MP claims council delays could jeopardise football hub scheme

The project is based on the FA's national football centre St George's Park

Plans for a £70m women's football hub in Cheshire are being "needlessly jeopardised" by council delays, an MP has claimed.

Cheshire Football Association announced plans for a football hub in May 2018.

Conservative MP Antoinette Sandbach said local Labour councillors were "playing games" which could result in the project losing government backing.

Cheshire West and Chester Council's Labour group said they were "absolutely committed" to the scheme.

The Labour-led council is considering becoming a "co-funder" of the scheme, which will include a 3,000-capacity stadium, a hotel and a number of football pitches.

It is due to open in 2020 and will be based on the FA's St George's Park centre of excellence in Staffordshire.

The exact location for the proposed site is yet to be announced, but sites in Northwich and Winsford have been under consideration.

'Progressing well'

In a letter to the council, the MP for Eddisbury said it was "simply not acceptable" that the project had been delayed "for so long", adding that the delays could "needlessly jeopardise" government funding due to time limits.

Ms Sandbach told the BBC the delays were "a political decision designed to make an announcement as close to the local government elections as possible".

All seats on the local authority will be contested in an election in May.

A Labour spokesman said Ms Sandbach did not "understand the complexity of this project", adding that the party's councillors would "get on with the business of delivering" the scheme.

Responding to the MP, council chief executive Andrew Lewis wrote that work was "progressing well".

"Since the council has a potential role as a co-funder of the scheme, we have also been working closely with Cheshire FA and their agents to establish a sound commercial case," he wrote.

He added that the administration could not "make a case under our prudential borrowing powers without assurance on the financial return".