A DECISION on a long-awaited £1.2-million scheme for improved sports facilities in the Crowndale area of Tavistock is still awaited, following a request for more information by funders. The scheme, to provide a rubber crumb artificial pitch for use by the community and Tavistock College students, plus additional facilities at Tavistock Football Club, is being steered by West Devon Borough Council. But it is dependent on attracting money from the grant-giving arm of the Football Association, the Football Foundation (FF). The bid has now been in the hands of the FF for almost two years and has been subjected to a series of delays. A revised business plan had to be prepared after the decision to site the artificial pitch on land at Crowndale, instead of Tavistock College, due to drainage problems. Now FF officials have asked the bid leaders to submit further, detailed costings regarding the scheme. A spokesman for the borough council said: ?Obviously we are looking at this request and will attempt to provide them with the details they seek, but it does mean the situation is still ongoing. ?The application has become far more protracted than we had first envisaged, but the parties remain optimistic about the eventual outcome.? Tavistock Football Club owns Langsford Park. The land at Crowndale on which the new pitch would be situated was bought by West Devon Borough Council many years ago ? Crowndale Recreational Association holds the land to develop sporting and recreational facilities under a very long lease. The borough council considers the land as a ?green lung? of Tavistock. It is protected by planning policies which restrict it for recreational and sporting use.
