MELKSHAM councillors are demanding to know why the town’s long overdue £7m sports stadium will not be ready until Christmas, with matches cancelled and people having to find a new venue for parties and christenings they had booked there.

Excitement was building as Melksham Town RC and Melksham Rugby Club planned to mark the move to their new state-of-the-art home in Woolmore Farm a week on Sunday with a charity match against former Manchester United stars.

The clubs have been told they cannot move in as the new clubhouse, which has been under construction since August 2015, is still without electricity.

The news has infuriated local people. Cllr Richard Wood, chairman of Melksham Without Parish Council, said: “It is just a mess and extremely embarrassing for the sports clubs and the town. It is just a ridiculous state of affairs. The parish council cannot understand why it has taken so long, why it has been delayed again and we still do not know who is responsible for this.

“My understanding is that the electricity supply and land owner agreements were the issue, but why was that not sorted before the building work began?”

“Wiltshire Council have had a long time to get this sorted. It was delayed last year, it was delayed in August and now it is delayed until December at the earliest. Nobody wants to own up to this. We want to also know why the cost went up from £2m to £7m.”

Melksham Town FC chairman Dave Wiltshire said: “It’s a shame because we’d accepted all sorts of bookings between October and November – parties, christenings and so on – and we’ve now had to let people down but I think they recognise that it’s no fault of the club.”

Development on the site was supposed to begin in April 2015, but was delayed after rare great crested newts were found on the land. The stadium was supposed to be ready in August2016, but that date too was put back.

A Wiltshire Council spokesman said: “Everyone involved in the project is doing everything they can to ensure the clubs can relocate to Woolmore Farm at the earliest opportunity. However the legal agreements to get the main power line into the site with multiple landowners and the electrical suppliershave been extremely complicated. We anticipate the clubs will relocate to the new state-of-the-art facility at the beginning of December. In the meantime they are playing their homes fixtures elsewhere, as was agreed in the contingency plans.”

The Manchester United match will now be played on October 16 at Melksham FC’s Conigre ground.