Bracknell Town FC’s director had plans to build a huge new sports complex on the site of Bracknell Leisure Centre, he has revealed.

But the council – which owns the leisure centre – says it wouldn’t have allowed this to go ahead.

Kayne Steinborn-Busse said he had been in talks with Bracknell Forest Council’s previous Conservative leadership about his plans, which he compared to Surrey Sports Park in Guildford.

The complex would have provided facilities for the SB Sport and Education Group, which he is also director of. But he says talks ended after Labour took control of the council in elections in May this year.

Mr Steinborn-Busse said: “We put together a significant plan for a university, concert hall, indoor cricket centre, gymnastics, a football ground – all upon that current site.”

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Mr Steinborn-Busse described his plan at a public meeting in Sandhurst on Tuesday, November 21. Residents aired concerns at the meeting about an agreement that allows Bracknell Town FC to play at Bottom Meadows football stadium in Sandhurst until 2051.

But Mr Steinborn-Busse said he doesn’t want Bracknell Town FC to stay in Sandhurst for that long. He said he hoped his plans for the leisure centre would facilitate the club’s return to Bracknell.

He said: “We had been in conversations with the borough leadership pre the election that happened in May. The change of leadership at the Borough Council – probably football is not high on the agenda.

“We want to have that conversation, but ultimately I think it’s probably just a case of time. I don’t want to force it. I think the conversation will naturally happen.”

But Bracknell Forest Council said it told him in March 2022 that it couldn’t accept the plans. It suggests legal restrictions would have prohibited the plans, and that planning officers would have considered them inappropriate development.

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Kevin Gibbs the council’s executive director for delivery, said: “In early 2022, the council became aware of a speculative proposal to redevelop the Bracknell Leisure Centre site from the SB Group.

“In a subsequent March 2022 meeting between the SB Group, senior councillors and senior council officers, the council confirmed that it would not be taking this offer forward, as this would be inappropriate development and prohibited by the land covenants on the site.”

He added: “There have been no subsequent discussions with the council on this proposed scheme since summer 2022 and there are no plans to reopen discussions on this matter.”

It is unclear which legal restrictions Mr Steinborn-Busse’s plans might have fallen foul of. Covenants attached to the land say it can only be used for sports, performances, dances or lectures, and not for motor racing.

The councillor currently responsible for leisure, Iskandar Jefferies, announced in July that the council had begun looking at long-term plans for the leisure centre’s replacement.

Mr Gibbs said the council is working on a ten-year plan to keep the leisure centre as a “sport led, council owned, community asset.”