MPs will investigate athletics stadium

A powerful Commons committee is to launch an investigation into the stalled plans for a national athletics stadium in north London amid warnings that the project threatens to become a repeat of the Millennium Dome disaster.

The Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee is to examine the financing of the troubled £97m scheme at Picketts Lock, Enfield, which is intended to be the centrepiece of a British bid to stage the 2005 World Athletics Championships.

In the wake of the chaos over the future of Wembley Stadium, work has yet to begin on the Picketts Lock project, with speculation already growing that it could be scrapped altogether. Gerald Kaufman, the chairman of the select committee, said ministers should refuse to bail out the project if, as expected, it runs out of cash.

Mr Kaufman said the Government would be "crazy" to fill the spending gap facing the scheme.

He said that even if Sport England, which distributes National Lottery cash, decided to bankroll the project, the stadium scheme could still face problems later on.

Stressing that he was expressing a personal view, Mr Kaufman said: "It might turn into the Millennium Dome of the second Blair administration. Worse, the nation might find itself landed with a part-completed stadium – and no World Athletics Championships in England.

"Far better to swallow our pride and call it quits."

Mr Kaufman said that the committee would also consider plans to build a new national football stadium as it believed there were "serious matters relating to the public finances" involved in both schemes. It will summon ministers and sports administrators to hearings in October.

The Picketts Lock project was effectively put on hold last month when the Sport England chairman, Trevor Brooking, said it could not yet authorise the allocation of a requested £60m lottery hand-out.

He said concerns remained over the capital funding, long-term viability and planning, and announced a review of the project by Patrick Carter, the former Prison Service director. He is due to report to Sport England next week.

Bob Russell, the Liberal Democrat sports spokesman, said: "This Government totally got it wrong with the Dome, the Wembley fiasco is still dragging on and now there's Picketts Lock. I'm not surprised that it may not materialise."

Michael Fabricant, a Tory member of the select committee, said: "This Government has been dogged by a series of embarrassments over projects like this.

"After the election, the Prime Minister took the unusual step of sacking the entire ministerial team at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport from the Secretary of State downwards.

"Whether the new Secretary of State, Tessa Jowell, will prove more able to satisfy the select committee or, more importantly, the International Amateur Athletics Federation will be crucial in determining whether London will be a credible bidder for the 2005 championships," he said.