PLANS to transform an Eastleigh warehouse into the largest indoor football academy in the South have been sent into extra time.

The £500,000 soccer centre of excellence which could produce future Michael Owens and David Beckhams was given the planning all-clear by a borough council viewing sub- committee on the chairman's casting vote.

But now the scheme by Kickers Indoor Sports Ltd, to convert the warehouse on Barton Park Industrial Estate, into a soccer showpiece with covered five-a-side pitches and a children's play area will go before a full meeting of the borough council on November 2.

Public access arrangements and worries over the proximity of the proposed centre to the flight path of Southampton International Airport forced the site meeting.

Government advice said part of the building was within the airport's public safety zone and there were worries about a plane crash resulting in a large-scale loss of life.

But Eastleigh's assistant head of development control, Ted Howles, calculated that when the warehouse was in full industrial use it had the capacity to accommodate 140 people and even at busy times the soccer centre's visitor numbers would not reach that because visitors would be spread through the day.

However, there remains concern over public access to the soccer complex and borough councillors Bill Luffman and Christine Hadley have put a minority order on the decision, meaning that it will now be chewed over by the whole council.

Mrs Hadley told the Daily Echo: "Something like that is going to be a great asset to Eastleigh. But we must be sure that the young people who are going, get there in safety."

She said there was conflicting information about the proposed access and added: "We are concerned because it is an industrial estate.

"If you have to walk in off the Bishopstoke Road there is no pavement, it is pitch black at night and there are buses and lorries going back and forth.

"We are not wishing to refuse the application at all, we think it would be great - as long as the safety aspect is cleared."