Club wants answers on pitch spending

A FOOTBALL club is demanding to know how the money to overhaul run-down playing fields in Chadderton has been spent.

Council chiefs received £280,000 from the Highways Agency — compensation for pitches lost elsewhere — to improve the Granby Street playing fields.

It also received £167,750 insurance to replace the changing rooms that were destroyed in an arson attack in 2004, which it is hoped will be matched by the Football Association.

However, Steve Lynch, secretary of Chadderton Park FC, wants to know exactly how much the council has spent installing new drainage, a multi-use games area, fencing, a youth shelter, landscaping and a car park.

He does not believes that the work totals £280,000, and also claims the council stated at a meeting that £500,000 would be spent. He added: “It appears to me this money has disappeared and the council is trying to match fund it from the FA.”

Vandals have targeted the playing fields for years and Royton Tigers moved away after the changing rooms were torched, claiming the council had not supported the club’s efforts to develop sport and community facilities there.

The council received the money from the Highways Agency in 2007 and work started on the playing fields only to be delayed by bad weather. It is now almost complete and will be ready for use next year.

Financial problems at the FA also delayed efforts to get match funding for the changing room but Graham Dixon, Oldham Council’s facility and development manager, confirmed this was now back on the agenda.

It is also hoped that changing rooms will include a community room which will be used daily to deter vandalism.

Councillor Mark Alcock, cabinet member for environment and infrastructure, said he could not give a breakdown of the spending because the information was commercially sensitive.

He said £280,000 was spent, adding: “I can assure citizens that all the work has been carried out in line with the council’s published procurement procedures. These are designed to ensure a competitive tendering process is carried out that ensures value for money in all such large-scale contracts.

“These costs will also be externally audited as part of the council’s budget process that is designed to make the council’s spending as clear and accountable as possible to local citizens.”