WIRRAL Council’s planning committee last night overturned their own officers’ advice and approved plans for an indoor cricket centre in the borough.

The scheme, by Eight4Sport, had been slated for refusal by planning officers as they said the warehouse should be retained for industrial use.

But councillors on the committee unanimously rejected this and praised the scheme for the jobs it will create and the sporting opportunities represented by the plan.

The ambitious plans to create the north of England’s first specialist indoor cricket pitch, in a disused warehouse in Bromborough, were submitted to the council late last year.

The proposal, by leisure company Eight4Sport, will see the unused warehouse in Candy Park developed, and, as well as three dedicated indoor cricket pitches, nets and practice lanes, also provide facilities for other sports, including indoor netball.

Last night, Oliver MacPherson, of Eight4Sport, said he and business partner Rob Chadderton were delighted by the committee’s decision.

He said they now planned to have the indoor cricket site open by the summer – and joked they were “praying for rain”. The planning department report advising councillors had concluded: “The proposal is unacceptable by reason of the proposed use within an industrial area, there is insufficient evidence to warrant overriding the current policies.”

But Bromborough councillor Steve Niblock had backed the scheme from the start and spoke to the committee urging them to accept it.