AN MP is demanding an urgent inquiry into the funding of a £20million sports centre which has been shut for two years.

Jonathan Shaw, MP for Chatham and Aylesford, says the Buckmore Park Scouting complex in Chatham was largely funded by public money and some of this should be paid back when it is sold to a developer.

But the Rochester Bridge Trust, which owns the site, denies it is liable for the Sport England contribution.

The sports centre has been closed since two management companies set up by the Scouts went bust in 2003 with debts of more than £1million.

The Scouts were forced to leave the site on June 30 but have kept the keys until various legal disputes are resolved.

The Highways Agency paid the Scouting movement £10million as compensation for the M2 widening scheme, and a further £2.9million was injected by Sport England from the Lottery.

It is this sum that Mr Shaw believes should be refunded.

He has written to Sports Minister Richard Caborn saying: "I would encourage Sport England to seek to recover the £2million of lottery funding from the current owners Rochester Bridge Trust or, at the very least, to ensure that the Bridge Trust be compelled to repay the £2million from the substantial proceeds likely to be received from a future sale."

He has also asked the National Audit Office to "investigate the use of public funds and the potential for the recovery of such funds".

He said: "The loss of sporting facilities in this part of Kent is a crying shame because we are not well endowed with good sports facilities.

"The public have got a right to know how we arrived at the situation we have and that’s why I’ve asked the National Audit Office to investigate the matter."

Rochester Bridge Trust is in talks with a possible buyer for the site. A trust spokesman stressed it was not liable for the Sport England contribution.

It had been paid to the Scouts and was a debt against the collapsed management companies.

The spokesman added: "I don’t think Mr Shaw understands the legal position. If he thinks there ought to be an inquiry into where money has gone and what these two companies on the site have done with it, then I think there is some justice in that."