Kent is unlikely to secure major new sports facilities on the back of the 2012 London Olympics, county council chiefs have conceded.

The county recently had a fillip with the news that more than 30 potential venues had been identified as possible training sites for teams ahead of the games.

But the earlier optimism that the 2012 Olympics would enable Kent to develop additional sports centres has all but disappeared, with the spiralling costs of building venues for the games being blamed.

Cllr Mike Hill (Con), Kent County Council’s cabinet member for communities, acknowledged time was running out for Kent and admitted the chances of anything new being built were slim.

Pressed by opposition parties during a full council meeting (April 3) about the prospects for new sporting centres, he said: “Frankly, that is one of my biggest disappointments. We have done everything we can to get infrastructure. We did have a chance of a 50-metre swimming pool [at the University of Kent] but it was a long and complex process that finally fell apart.”

The need to release more cash to help build venues in London for the 2012 meant that investment in the regions had effectively been held back, he added.

Opposition Labour spokesman Cllr Roger Truelove said: “If you talk about a legacy, then a legacy surely involves some kind of physical infrastructure in Kent.”

Shadow Conservative sports minister and Kent MP Hugh Robertson said the county was losing out because of the spiralling costs of the games.

“The problem that everyone has got is that as the Olympic budget has overrun, the finances available to bring about new facilities has been hit harder and harder. That means there is very little lottery money for the Olympic legacy,” he said.