COLCHESTER Council has set aside £100,000 to buy a sports field in the borough.

The money - specifically set aside for “open space acquisition” - will come out of the authority’s New Homes Bonus allocation from central Government in 2015/16.

Colchester finance boss Paul Smith has remained tight-lipped on where the money could be spent.

He said: “We are concerned about the lack of sporting provision and we want to see if we can change that.

“The money is from the News Homes Bonus, so we want to use it to benefit the community and this sort of thing will.”

One such “open space” could be the Gas Recreation field, off Bromley Road, in Colchester, but Mr Smith said any suggestions of specific sporting fields is “speculation”.