Progress on council's £2.6m playing pitch hub ramps up

South Ribble Borough Council has invested around £1.8m into the development - one of the biggest the council has made yet - to transform the leisure offer in the borough.

Opening this summer, the site, in Bamber Bridge, will boast two brand-new 3G artificial sports pitches complemented by a fully accessible state-of-the-art sports pavilion to the southwest of the existing Bamber Bridge Leisure Centre, which will serve both the new artificial pitches and the existing Withy Grove play area. 

The development is well underway with the pavilion just shy of roof height with the roof set to be installed next month.

Once installed, the inside kit-out of the four new team changing rooms, showers, separate disability accessible changing facilities and a changing room for officials can get underway.

The pavilion will also have a social room with a small kitchen as well as several storage rooms

Recent bad weather has slightly affected the groundwork on the two 3G pitches, however the project is on track to open this summer ahead of the up-coming football season.

Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing, Councillor Mick Titherington, said, "I'm so pleased to see this development progress.

"I visited the site recently and to see the pavilion nearly at full height, you can really see the scale of what we are doing here and can see just how many people across the community will be able to benefit from this incredible professional-standard facility. 

"As a council we have invested a significant amount of money into the development of this facility because we know just how much our community needs it. 

"There are already some 244 football teams playing on formal pitches in the borough - including 48 adult teams, 60 youth teams and 136 mini-mixed teams.

"However, there are currently only five full-sized artificial pitches in the borough and only two available on weekends. 

"And we're not just talking about football. 

"The creation of the South Ribble Playing Pitch Hub is a key element of our 'More People, More Active' strategy, which aims to get more adults and children to participate in sport.

"At the heart of this strategy is the determination to provide the very best facilities for our residents."

"This professional-standard facility will be something we can be proud to have in our borough and I cannot wait to see the facility up and running and to see people right across our community getting more active this summer."

The project is being supported by the UK's largest sports charity, the Football Foundation taking input from 'Football Foundation Fan' Leyland-born freestyle world record holder, Liv Cooke. 

In addition to the pavilion and 3G pitches the existing Leisure Centre car park is to be extended to the south to provide an additional 77 car spaces - taking the total to 206, including 10 disabled spaces - and eight of these spaces will include electric vehicle charging facilities. 

Two minibus spaces and two coach lay-bys will also be created along with 12 cycle hoops accommodating 24 cycles.

Meanwhile, Brindle Road junction is to be re-modelled and improved.

A substantial tree planting scheme has been approved for the scheme and in total, 144 new trees are to be planted on site along with more than 1,000 whips (young trees) which will grow alongside them.