A YEAR after it failed at the first hurdle, a lottery bid for a sports centre in Okehampton has been resubmitted and the mood is 'optimistic.'

The bid to the Lottery Board of £1.9-million is for a revised scheme, which includes a 25-metre four-lane swimming pool, dance studio, fitness suite and sports hall. The outcome should be known by Christmas.

The total cost of the project is £2.7-million with the remaining money coming from local funding. West Devon Borough is contributing £410,000 from the Waitrose receipt, Devon County Council £150,000, Okehampton Town Council £60,000, the Mid Devon Primary Care £13,000 and Okehampton College and local fundraising £17,000.

Okehampton was hugely disappointed when the 1998 lottery bid failed. Lottery officials said the project, in the region of £4-million, had been too ambitious and there was a shortage of local partnership funding.

West Devon Borough Council, which submitted the bid, took some consolation in the fact that lottery officials had not rejected the scheme outright and agreed to talk with the authority to see if problems could be overcome.

Deputy chief executive of the borough council David Inman said it was now a case of waiting to see if the revised bid would move forward to phase two.

'In the next few months we will know the outcome and hopefully we will have some news by Christmas — we are optimistic,' he told members of the council's strategic development committee last week.

Mayor of Okehampton Christine Marsh said there was a lot of money riding on the bid.

'The borough and county councils have earmarked a lot of funding and we, the town council, have also committed ourselves.

'Let's hope we can now get the new swimming pool we so desperately need and the other facilities.'

She said everything had been put on hold to wait and see if lottery cash was forthcoming.

'We have been waiting about four years for this,' she said. 'We have not been able to do up the pavilion or improve the tennis courts and no money has been spent on the swimming pool.

'Nothing has moved forward since the lottery bid was first talked about — at least, soon, we will know one way or the other if it is going to happen.'