Sports hub could be premier facility

A SPORTS hub being mooted for Eston Rec could become one of the North of England’s “premier” such facilities, a council leader claims.

- By STUART ARNOLD

Redcar and Cleveland Council leader Alec Brown suggested he wanted to go further than the current earmarked investment in the green space, which is surrounded by Normanby Road, the Trunk Road and Church Lane in Eston. Posting on Facebook, he said a £6m bid could be submitted to the Football Foundation with potential match funding also coming from the council and its partners, and he had directed council officers to work up such an application.

The Labour leader said “political direction” would drive an existing masterplan and the ‘Rec’ as it is known locally could become “one of the premier sports hubs in the North’, mentioning the addition of four new 3G artificial pitches and a basketball and netball court.

He also shared a CGI image of a similar new-build facility located on a former horse racing course in Derby, in the East Midlands.

A total of £1.05m has already been allocated by the council to the Rec from grant funding supplied to the local authority from the last Government's Levelling Up Partnerships scheme.