FOLKESTONE will not be getting a new multi-million pound sports centre after all. Shepway District Council has until the end of May to bid for Government funds to improve sporting facilities in the district - and it was hoped an application would include plans for a new centre in Folkestone, to be the envy of the rest of Kent.

This week a well-placed council source told the Kentish Express that it had been forced to drop the plans. Folkestone Sports Centre trust has always favoured the option of keeping the existing sports centre in Radnor Park Avenue and simply bidding for funds from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport for a refurbishment.

However, the leader of the council and members of the cabinet at Shepway wanted a new centre and had earmarked a site in Cheriton Road, next to Safeways. The source said: "The council needs everyone on board if it is to bid for a new centre - but Folkestone Sports Centre will not support the plans for a new centre."

A new centre would cost around £12 million. These plans were reliant on not only the Government contributing funds but also on the sports centre trust contributing about a third of this cost, moving and releasing its site for housing or other development. A bid will still be made for a new sports centre for Hythe, to include a six-lane swimming pool and 200 seat spectator gallery.