Sports enthusiasts in Wantage are celebrating a £250,000 windfall to pay for a top sports facility.

King Alfred's Community and Sports College will get £250,000 from the Government for its sports dome.

The £200,000 polythene airhall was built last year over outdoor tennis courts on the school's west site in Challow Road.

It's one of just 42 sports colleges in the country — and the only one in Oxfordshire — to share a slice of £10m to improve sports facilities.

Simon Spiers, the school's director of sport, said: "The school is delighted to receive the grant.

"It means the Government will be paying for it and not school funds.

"The money will cover all the costs of the dome and it will allow us to replace the floor with a new sound-absorbing surface."

"The dome has transformed our physical education curriculum. It has allowed us to change the curriculum to include things like table tennis, badminton, trampolining and it has raised participation and achievement rates because the children are doing things they really want to do.

"Young people in the Wantage and Grove area don't have enough indoor facilities since St Mary's School closed down and the leisure centre is over-subscribed."

The school is applying for planning permission to extend the dome's opening hours so it can be used by the community in the evenings and weekends.

The facility came under the spotlight in May after complaints from neighbours in Warmans Close and Lydsee Gate over noise — and the fact it failed to comply with some aspects of the original planning permission.

He said: "The hours after school will be restricted to between 6pm and 8pm for community use and we will also restrict the types of sport. For example, football is too noisy for community use, so it will be used for things like badminton and trampolining."

Peter Preston, 61, of Warmans Close, said: "I support what they're trying to do, as long as they control the noise."

Vale of White Horse District Council will make a decision on the planning application in November.