PLANS for an athletics track to serve youngsters across Teesside have taken a step forward.

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council has agreed to award £40,000 to the East Cleveland Athletics Association, which means the group can now apply to the National Lottery for sports funding.

The track, planned for a former landfill site at Hob Hill, in Saltburn, and will house a six-lane track for 100m and 110m hurdles, a four-lane track for 200m, two lanes for 400m, as well as areas for javelin, high jump, shot putt, pole vault, hammer and discus, and a sandpit for long jump and triple jump. There will also be facilities for five-a-side football and netball.

The group had £50,000 in place and needed a further £30,000 so that the Lottery would pay for the remaining 80 per cent of the £400,000 scheme.

It applied to the council for a share of £2m from the New Opportunities Fund, which was available to schools and community groups throughout the borough to develop sports facilities.

The council decided that the money was too much for one project, but councillors wanted to support what they saw as a worthwhile project.

They asked officers in the education department to see if the cash could be found from elsewhere in the department's budget and the money has become available thanks to an underspend in the capital programme.

Graham Hall, from the association, said that the track will be the only place in Teesside where youngsters can be coached in different aspects of athletics. One of the coaches is Redcar's Paralympic champion, Tanni Grey-Thompson.

He said: "It means that we now have more than enough money in place to go forward with the Lottery application and we already have all the mandatory requirements, such as planning permission, in place. We can now put a bid in and I think we have one of the best cases to put forward in the whole of the country in terms of need, design and value for money.

"Every tick box they will ever throw against us I am sure we will have a good mark against.