THURROCK Council has been blasted for reneging on an agreement to secure the future of a local community football venue.

The Thurrock Sunday League has made its HQ at the Lakeside Sports Ground adjacent to the Arterial Road (A1306), North Stifford. When the league moved to the site Thurrock Council promised the league it would get a 25-year lease.

That allowed the league to secure funding to improve facilities, which now includes a much-used floodlit artificial pitch, but the league is concerned about its future.

However, the future now seems less than secure.

One threat comes from the proposed creation of new slip roads onto the A13 from the Lakeside regional shopping centre, which have been promised by the government. Construction would scythe through part of the land currently occupied by pitches.

At one time there was potential for the pitch to be moved nearer the A1306 but that land has since been sold and fenced off by its new owners – who also bought up the Lakeside over-spill car park which is currently subject to a contentious planning application by its current occupiers, Skanska Construction who are heavily engaged in work to create a new Lower Thames River Crossing.

Earlier this week the over-spill site was featured in a Thurrock Nub News report after we learned Skanska did not have planning permission to develop the site. They have now applied retrospectively - having created the buildings and site layout.

That has brought criticism from campaigners against the crossing – and it has also highlighted the fears of the league.

The league's Graham Monk said: "We raised the issue of Skanska with the council many, many months ago. The council can't say they didn't know what was going on there because we told them.

"The same people who bought the site bought the land adjacent to us and they have boxed us in.

"We fear that there may a longer term plan to move us out. We were using the land that was sold but that's now been blocked off.

"Our future should have been secured by a lease from the council but they have not delivered it. In fact we are now told they are not going to give us a lease – they have changed their plans and we don't know where that leaves us."

Thurrock Council has been asked to comment.