A HAMPSHIRE school is a step closer to providing a top division home for grass roots football, despite dropping a £1.5m lottery bid.

Hedge End's Wildern School has been earmarked for a £182,000 multi-use games area with state-of-the-art surfacing.

The area - which will use the same type of artificial pitch as Premiership clubs - will provide a training facility for hundreds of footballers in Hedge End, West End and Botley.

A £34,000 cash boost has already been earmarked by Eastleigh Borough Council on condition that the Wildern Lane school provides Pound-for-Pound funding.

A bid will also be made to the Football Foundation with the help of Hampshire Football Association.

The planned scheme comes after the school ended a previous bid for lottery cash to give Fair Oak's Wyvern Technology College a better chance of winning funding.

But backers of the replacement proposal are delighted with the plans.

Wildern deputy head Julie Turvey said: "With the support of Hedge End, West End and Botley parishes, this is an excellent opportunity to provide a high specification training facility for our local community for grass roots football."

A survey of the 23 local football clubs operating in the three parishes has shown that the scheme has across-the-board support in an area with a lack of leisure facilities.