A £1 million black hole has appeared in a project to develop a new community centre for Heysham.

Sport England has pulled the plug on funding it promised towards the multi-million pound project for the Heysham Mossgate site.

New medical and dental surgeries, a community centre, 400 homes and a police station were planned alongside sports facilities in the estimated £6 million redevelopment.

But Morecambe Bay Primary Care Trust has announced that it can no longer stick to its end of the bargain.

And so Sport England has pulled out - saying that the project was 'no longer able to meet the timetable' that accompanied the conditions of funding.

That means sports facilities envisaged in the draft plan can no longer be provided.

The Primary Care Trust says it has failed to meet the timetable because GPs at Heysham Health Centre were 'reluctant' to commit to the new community facility.

It has informed the project group that it cannot meet the deadline set by Sport England because doctors want to stay put at the present health centre.

Chief executive Dr Leigh Griffin told the Citizen this week: "We agreed that the extent to which we could support the project was linked to the transfer of services from Heysham Health Centre and the sale of the health centre site.

"The GPs at Heysham indicated that they had some reservations in moving in with the Mossgate development. They are independent from us and so we can't force them to move.

"It does put all parties in a tricky situation but we can't lever services in against their will. We will look at it again and see is there is anything else that we can do."

Mr Griffin says, however, that GPs at Heysham have indicated that they are interested in buying the centre themselves and developing it independently. If that happens, he will look at channeling cash from the sale into Mossgate.

He adds: "It is a wonderful proposal and no-one wants it to fail but getting parties together is always going to be hard."

No-one was available to comment at Heysham Health Centre despite numerous efforts by the Citizen to get a statement

Les Turner, chair of Heysham Mossgate community facilities, says: "We are absolutely devastated by the loss of the grant from Sport England and cannot understand why the Primary Care Trust has allowed the position to reach this point without telling the partner agencies sooner.

"We are now working to revise the project without the Morecambe Bay PCT to provide a new library, IT centre, a youth and community centre and sports facilities - though with the loss of the Sport England grant, some elements will have to be reduced."

Cllr Ian Barker, leader of Lancaster City Council says: "I fail to understand how the Morecambe Bay PCT now say that they cannot afford what they specified or that the GPs do not want what was being proposed."

The future of the development hinges on the results of a public inquiry which took place in January.

The project was called in by the Secretary of State because existing consent for MAC Construction to build on the land at Mossgate Park had expired and current legislation forbids building on greenfield sites.