ATHLETICS: BRIAN Hall, a former international runner, has begun a campaign for a new running track in a £1m vision for Knight's Grange.

The 66-year-old Winsford-based borough and town councillor believes the sports complex should become the home of Mid Cheshire athletics - and much more besides.

'We cannot stage meetings in our area. The Mid Cheshire Schools Championship is again in Warrington because it is too dangerous to use either Hartford or Knight's Grange.

'Vale Royal Athletic Club has got 300 members and the different disciplines have to train in different places, wherever they can find.

'They have done astonishingly well because the coaches are high quality and committed.

'But if we had a track and base, that number would soar to 1,000.'

Hall has the backing of VRAC but needs to persuade the borough council that his scheme is worth supporting and find a route to funding and grants.

His vision is for a £500,000 400m artificial track, fully enclosed with a pavilion and a small grandstand.

It is 25 years since Mid Cheshire held a track meeting of any note. Hartford used to be the centre of Cheshire athletics, but as the facility deteriorated and became outdated, the sport looked to more modern facilities at Crewe and Warrington.

Ten years ago, after a campaign by the Chronicle, a new track was included in the borough's capital programme. Then it slipped on to the reserve list and then disappeared from sight altogether.

It re-emerged as part of the Hartford-Moss Farm campus National Lottery bid, but that failed last year and has not been revived.

Hall ran in the steeplechase for England at the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth and also competed at the European Games, Belgrade, and the World Cross-Country Championships, in which he was sixth.

He has lived in Winsford for about 30 years and was the founder of Winsford AC, which 10 years ago merged with Mid Cheshire AC to create Vale Royal.

Hall said: 'They created a 440m track originally at Knight's Grange and then changed it. But it and Hartford are both shale and both dangerous.

'In this day and age and for a borough our size, it is just not good enough.'

He is to report to the Winsford Area Working Group of Vale Royal councillors.

'There is no social area or bar and not enough changing rooms,' he said.

'All of the community centres in Winsford have been demolished because of vandalism.

'My vision is for something exceptional, something for the whole community to use - a meeting place for mother and toddler groups and pensioners to martial arts groups.

'Sport should get its share of what money is available.

'The athletics club has got the members, got the volunteers, the coaches and the performers and no base.'

Hall even floated the idea of Winsford United leaving Barton Stadium and making their home at Knight's Grange, and attracting hockey to the complex also.

'It is the same old Knight's Grange, but it could be a fantastic place,' he said.

The borough council would take responsibility for the track once it was completed, he says.

But time is running out. He anticipates the possible new North West Regional Assembly and the shake-up of local government releasing money for such schemes.

'We have not got long - and we need all the support we can get,' said Hall.