PLANS have been submitted for a multi-million pound Soccerdome development for the North-East, creating a regional football centre with 20 pitches and bringing up to 400 jobs.

Retailer JJB Sports is hoping to build the 180,000 sq ft development - with 20 five-a-side indoor football pitches, and four full-size outdoor pitches - in Darlington.

A health and fitness club, swimming pool, JJB Sports store and TJ Hughes store are also included in the plans, which were received by Darlington Borough Council last week.

But fears have been raised that the scheme could be blocked because the site of the development goes against the town's local plan, the blueprint for the future of Darlington.

In the local plan, the site, on Yarm Road, is outside the area earmarked for retail development.

A 40-year-old factory, which was used by engine components firm Cummins, would be converted into the Soccerdome under the plans.

Part of the building is used by mobile phone network Orange as a call centre and offices, and this will be unaffected.

Deni Sharvak, of High Point Estates, which owns the listed building, said he hoped the council would look beyond the local plan and realise the potential of the scheme.

He said: "This will be a regional soccer academy, but it is not financially viable in itself. JJB Sports needs to include its store and a TJ Hughes store on the site to justify the Soccerdome's expense.

"The council may be concerned about trade being taken away from the town centre, but it is a great opportunity for Darlington."

Jeremy Hinds, director of PDC Limited, which is acting for JJB Sports while the planning application goes through, said: "JJB would not normally look at Darlington as a venue for a centre like this, but it so happened that there was an existing building, with enough land around it to create the Soccerdome.

"If the planning application is refused, JJB will probably look somewhere else, such as Middlesbrough, Newcastle or Doncaster." There are already three Soccerdomes, in Wigan, Manchester and Derby.