AMBITIOUS plans for a new Swindon Town Football Club HQ are no longer going ahead.

The £6m training facility would have been built on the old Twelve Oaks Golf Club to the north of Highworth along with 18 new luxury houses.

The borough council approved the headquarters proposal in October 2020 then gave the green light to the new housing estate last February. But both applications have now been turned down because the conditions of the approval were not met.

More details about community use, a travel plan, and ways to balance the impact of the development on the surrounding area needed to be finalised before construction could begin.

The local authority explained: “Despite numerous attempts to liaise with the applicant’s legal advisor, the council’s solicitor has been unable to make satisfactory progress with the drafting of the S106 agreement and it is concluded that there is no serious intention by the applicant to progress this application."

The complex – taking up 12 of the golf course’s 22 hectares – would have featured a purpose-built training centre, gymnasium and offices, eight grass training pitches and a full-size all-weather floodlit pitch. The existing clubhouse would then have become the players’ restaurant.

Former Swindon Town owner Lee Power submitted the plans in 2018 and the approvals came in while he was still in the top job. He has since left the club and Clem Morfuni took charge last August.

Mr Power’s company Power Geneva applied for, and was granted, permission to construct a racehorse training facility on a third part of the golf course.

At the committee meeting where the HQ's permission was granted, Town’s representative said the centre would save the club £700,000 a year in fees it paid to use three separate training facilities.

But now, the club is no longer involved in the application process and they do not own the land at Twelve Oaks. The ownership of the land is subject to proceedings in an ongoing court case involving football agent Michael Standing and Lee Power.

Neighbours in Highworth wrote dozens of letters objecting to the football training complex citing noise, traffic and light pollution issues. Highworth Town FC feared the FA would not help the club with funding for a second pitch if the Robins’ training facility was built.