THE creation of the £25m shared stadium for Workington will drag the town “out of the doldrums and into the 21st century”, cash-strapped council chiefs have proclaimed today.

Alan Smith, leader of Allerdale council, made the comments as the executive agreed to take the ambitious project for a community stadium through to the next stage.

The council wants to build a venue to house Workington Town and Workington Reds on the site of the run-down football stadium at Borough Park, with extra space for NHS staff and nuclear workers included as part of the plans.

The project was initially forecast to cost around £15million but following news that Sellafield Ltd is interested in moving 300 staff on the site, the price tag has gone up by £10m to pay for the offices needed to accommodate them.

The project is also a cornerstone of the authority’s bid to become a host venue for the Rugby League World Cup 2021.

Today the council  agreed to commit £373,955 towards further design development work as the plans cleared another hurdle.

Council leader Alan Smith said: “We have been in the doldrums since the 1930s with our decrepit stadium. Now is the chance to drag this area into the 21st-century. It’s about community. It’s about ambition. It’s about the young sports players of the area.

“We have to take this step forward otherwise we will stay in the doldrums. We could go for the cheaper option but we need sustainability in the area. We need jobs in the area.”

The stadium plans have come under fire in particular from Mark Jenkinson, deputy leader of the Allerdale Conservatives, who has branded it a “vanity project” and called for a cheaper and scaled-back version.

But the executive today insisted that the stadium was needed not only provide long overdue sports facilities in the area but to boost health and well-being and regenerate the area as whole.

Michael Heaslip, Executive Member for Environmental Quality, added that he didn’t want to spend his old age in a town where things were “falling apart” and it “looked like the apocalypse has come.”

He said: “If something isn’t done the Reds and Town struggling to continue in decrepit out-of-date run-down semi-derelict stadia will go out of business in five or ten years.

“And as we  are the landlord we have a responsibility. We can’t let that happen.

“Looking at it purely from a sporting perspective, doing nothing about those facilities is not an option. We will end up with no Reds and no Town, a lack of community sports facilities and two derelict sites and no way forward. The opportunity to develop a community stadium in this area is a tremendous one.”

Joan Ellis, Executive Member for Governance and People Resources, said she “wholeheartedly” supported the proposal going through to the next stage.

She said: “This a great opportunity in terms of economic development but also providing an excellent facility for the community, for the town, for the whole of west Cumbria and Cumbria."

An outline business case presented to the executive said that leasing offices to Sellafield Ltd could make a "significant contribution” to the projects "long-term viability".

The stadium, including the 3G pitch and changing facilities would cost around £15.45million, while the offices and new base for NHS staff attached to the venue would cost around £9.55m million.

It is “still too early” to confirm the outside funding available to support this project and the council will now consider whether to borrow the full amount needed to build the stadium.

The report also recommends that the council creates a “stadium management company”, allowing the authority to keep a “degree of control” over the project while mitigating the financial risks involved.