A £2.6M redevelopment of sporting facilities in Witney moved a step closer after a council meeting earlier this week.

Members of the town council’s leisure and recreation committee endorsed a report that recommends investing heavily in current sports sites rather than selling off West Witney Sports Ground for housing and building a new leisure complex at Downs Road.

The Downs Road plan had been the policy of the council until relatively recently, but it was extremely unpopular with sports clubs that use the West Witney site.

The recommendation by consultants Sports Solutions GB that West Witney is redeveloped and money is also spent on other sports pitches around the town was backed on Monday by five votes to three.

The councillors who opposed it were David Harvey, Chrissie Curry and Brenda Churchill.

The report will now go to the full council for consideration.

It said the bulk of the spending required, £1.1m, should go on new changing and social facilities at West Witney. It added that the King George V Field playing surfaces in Newland need a £30,000 investment.

Councillor Ben Woodruff, who also sits on the West Witney Sports Ground working party, said this was what Witney’s residents wanted.

He said: “The proposed move to Downs Road wasn’t feasible.

“The support of the people in West Witney is to stay at the West Witney Sports Ground.”

But he admitted there were financial difficulties with the proposals. Witney Town Council has only £450,000 available to invest in sports facilities.

Even if the council secured the maximum grant available, it would still leave a shortfall of £1,063,997.

He said: “Financially, it’s very expensive. The council should first of all be looking at giving user groups a lease that will allow them to apply to their own bodies for grants.”

But David Harvey said this was not a long-term solution to the provision of sports facilities. He said: “The West Witney Sports Ground is landlocked and cannot be expanded or offer more pitches.

“You will find in a few years that you face the same problems again that we have faced for the past decade.

“This is not what the people of Witney deserve.”

But there was welcome news for Witney Lawn Tennis Club at Monday night’s meeting.

The committee recommended resurfacing the tennis courts at West Witney Sports Ground as soon as possible.

The club has been complaining to the council over the state of the courts since 2007.

The council agreed to spend £28,000 on resurfacing work in March last year but so far nothing has happened.

Tennis club chairman Chris Pyne said: “I’m ecstatic to see a sensible decision taken.”

The recommendations from Monday’s meeting need to be ratified by the full council on December 2.