The NEXT steps to bring Doric Park to reality have been revealed.

Doric Park is a project the town council has been working on for more than ten years and it has spent two decades trying to find new pitches for the town.

Currently the town council has put the project out to tender and confirmed the full cost of building the facility.

Once this is confirmed, the tender will go before the town council to approve at its next meeting on July 20.

Town clerk Lance Allan said he hopes that Doric Park will be open for September next year.

“That fits in line with the start of the college’s term – they’re one of our partners for using the pitch,” he said. “Ideally if we can get it open for the start of September that would be superb.”

If the tender is approved the town council will then put in the loan application to get the build funded.

Mr Allan said there is a risk the estimated £2.2m figure might run over because of interest rates and the additions added to Doric Park in negotiation with planners.

These additions include tree cover for the local bat populations.

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“We’re still pretty confident that over the life of the project it won’t cost the council tax payers of Trowbridge anything because the income from the facility should cover the running costs, capital cost and interest,” he continued.

The worst case scenario being that after the first few years if Wiltshire College decides not to continue as the “day-time partner” there may be some difficulty in filling that gap.

This would mean the capital cost of the facility would be passed on to council tax payers, however, Mr Allan says that there’s no expectation, even in the worst case scenario, that taxpayers would have to cover the running costs.

In the best case, Doric Park provides a financial return for the town and according to Mr Allan “effectively subsidises the council tax.”

Wiltshire College – which will run some courses from the facility – is just one of the organisations to be using Doric Park, others include local football teams and Bath rugby club.

Mr Allan also wanted to reassure residents that Doric Park would not be another “mini-conference centre” as there is a deal with the rugby club not to compete with them and will be used only as a sports facility.