A £1 million sports hub is being planned for St Martins.

The ambitious scheme is the result of months of negotiations between St Martins Parish Council, Shropshire Council, St Martins School and landowner Ian Hill-Trevor of the Brynkinalt Estate.

New homes are being built on the estate's property and Mr Hill-Trevor was keen to work with the community and offer extra land to provide exceptional recreation facilities for the village.

About 10 acres of land behind St Martins School has been donated and earmarked for the development.

Steve Davenport, who represents St Martins on Shropshire Council, said: "It's not a case of when or if this will happen – it will happen.

"Everyone connected with the project wants it to go ahead – nothing will stop it now. It will become reality."

So far, plans for the land include:

n An all-weather football pitch with floodlights and a spectator stand, of a standard to enable St Martins FC to play in higher grades of football than at present;

n A new grass football pitch;

n A cricket pitch

n Hard-standing tennis courts and a hockey pitch;

n A pavilion large enough to hold community meetings – and to enable refreshments to be served during football matches;

n Extra car parking.

The facilities would be run jointly by the parish council and St Martins School. Access would be through the school gates, although the facilities would be available for everyone in the village, not just pupils.

If plans proceed as expected, work in transforming the site would begin in about a year's time.

John Stevens, a member of St Martins Parish Council, said: "We have spent a lot of time working on this project and we are now at a very exciting stage.

"We must stress they will be community facilities and available for everyone in the village.

"St Martins FC currently play in the West Midlands Regional League and should they gain promotion to Step 6, they would need better facilities and this would address that.

"The local scout group is looking for a regular place to meet, and this could address that, too.

"Council chairman Glenn Pennington and I have spoken to the school about how best the facilities could be run on a day-to-day basis for the benefit of the parish and we have broad areas of agreement how best to move it forward.

"Originally, the land we were offered by Mr Hill-Trevor was in a slightly different position and access would have been through the housing estate, but we all talked about what would most benefit St Martins.

"It is now proposed we have a fairly significant piece of land to enable the facilities to be built.

"We expect the final bill to be in the region of £1m and this will be met by Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) funds, sports grants and some match funding. We have also identified a sum of money in excess of £150,00 from Shropshire Council that has been earmarked for community use.

"We hope we will be in a position to get everything agreed by August of this year. It will transform the recreational facilities for the village."

Cllr Davenport, who is also vice-chairman of governors at St Martins School and has been involved in the project from the start, said: "This goes to show what can be achieved when everyone works together.

"Mr Hill-Trevor has donated a lot of land and every organisation has played its part in making this happen.

"St Martins School is becoming increasingly popular and if needs to grow in the future to cope with demand, this will also enable it to expand and for extra classrooms to be provided."

Mr Stevens added that it was not too late for St Martins residents to suggest other facilities which could be included as part of the plan.

“We would love to hear what else people would like to see ¬– the plans are far from final,” he said.

Ideas can be emailed to Andrew Cast, the chairman of the parish council’s Recreation Committee, at accast@hotmail.com