HAVERHILL Community Football Project should be ready for the start of the 2010/2011 season – despite revelations this week that six bids to work on the project had all come in over budget.
St Edmundsbury Council’s cabinet papers revealed all six potential developers were above the £2 million the council hopes to have to fund the project, which would include a new home pitch for Haverhill Rovers.
The council has asked the three lowes
t-priced tenders to return with cost-cutting ideas to make the project fall within the budget, £700,000 of which is yet to be secured from the Football Foundation.
Mike Dawson, the council’s corporate director for community, said: “At the moment what we are doing is going back to cabinet to say the tenders did come in slightly over budget but there are in all build projects of this scale ways in which things can be done differently to reduce costs.
“We just want to make it really successful for the football community in Haverhill and we are doing this to make sure we get good value for money and the scheme fulfils its promises.”
St Edmundsbury Council originally pledged £1.5 million to the scheme in 2006 but has since reduced its pledge to £1.3 million.
When asked if the scheme would have been over budget had the council not cut £200,000 from the pot, Mr Dawson said: “It may well have been in budget, but we don’t want council tax payers to pay for things they don’t need to pay for, and we think we can deliver this scheme from within our own budgets to deliver best value for money.”
The scheme, which has already received planning permission from the council, would see a new footballing facility created at the top of the Chalkstone estate.
There would be a new stadium for Rovers to play their home matches in and host other events, while a number of other pitches would be on the site to provide places to play for other youth, senior and disabled teams.
However, the whole project could be halted if the Football Foundation does not award £700,000 to the scheme next month.
“It’s absolutely crucial that we are successful with that,” said Mr Dawson.
A decision on that chunk of the funding is likely to be made following a meeting of the Football Foundation on May 18.
