CIVIC chiefs have agreed to increase their funding for a new indoor sports facility at Swanmore College of Technology to £700,000.

The money will be spent on building a new sports centre at the site on the understanding that in the evenings, weekends and school holidays, the facilities will be open to the public.

The decision ends a 20-year wait for improved sports facilities in the area, though some concern was expressed over the spiralling costs.

Originally Winchester City Council had agreed a £500,000 grant to help with the building costs, however the extra £200,000 agreed this week is partly down to the site the centre will be built on.

Community services director at the city council, Steve Tilbury, told a meeting of the authority's Principal Scrutiny Committee that the costs had escalated because the ground is very poor at the site.

The new centre will be used for everything from martial arts to dance classes and gymnastics to aerobics and keep fit classes, with the local community guaranteed usage outside school hours.

The council has built in an agreement from Hampshire County Council and the college to make sure the centre will be available to the wider community, and the college have also agreed to employ a manager to oversee community use.

The extra £200,000 will come from using a £115,000 Inland Revenue rebate and £85,000 from capital budgets. Hampshire County Council, which has not provided any money for the scheme, is donating the services of its architectural division to draw up the plans.

Along with the new centre, plans have also been drawn up for a £290,000 floodlit outdoor all-weather pitch to be built next to it. Money for this project will come independently of the city council, with much of the funding coming from the Football Foundation and local contributions.

However, before this second proposed development has even left the drawing board, problems have arisen with the pitch surface. While local hockey and tennis clubs say the surface should be sand-based, football clubs object, saying the abrasiveness will cause cuts and grazes for players, and instead want a water-based pitch.

A final decision is expected in the new year.