AN £8 million deal to provide a new multi-sports hub for Bradford on Avon has run into problems because of a £2 million shortfall in land values.

Waddeton Park Ltd, of Exeter, which owns the Beehive field on the Trowbridge Road, has suggested bridging the shortfall through an ‘enabling’ development of new homes, sheltered housing and an old people’s care home.

Fields in Trust, the owners of Bradford on Avon Town FC’s ground, have valued it at £6 million and Waddeton Park would want £8 million for the 25-acre Beehive site.

Jonathan Maguire, who runs Sunergi Ltd in Bradford on Avon, says the deal is now in danger of being undermined by Waddeton’s determination to extract the full value of the Beehive site in any sale.

He said: “What seemed like an agreed deal has now unravelled and we need to get it back on track so that Bradford Town FC can relocate to a nice new ground and the town’s youth football sections can have somewhere to train in the winter and to play.

“The deal was based on the sale of the current Bradford on Avon Town FC ground with outline planning permission and the funds raised to secure the 25-acre site now controlled by Waddeton.”

But Waddeton Park says the proposed development will help subsidise the cost of the sports complex, which would provide a new home for Bradford on Avon Town FC, the Bradford on Avon Youth FC sections, and the town’s bowls and archery clubs.

Wadeton Park director, Simon Steele-Perkins, said: “It would protect a large area of land from future development, all at no financial cost to the local community.”

Any plans to build housing on the Green Belt land are likely to be strongly opposed by local residents.

They would also be against policies in the Bradford on Avon Neighbourhood Plan, Wiltshire Council’s Core Strategy and the National Planning Policy Framework.