A football club’s community trust has donated footballs to a business as part of an exciting sculpture trail set to open in June.

The footballs, donated by Accrington Stanley Community Trust, have been taken apart and students from St Nicholas CE Primary School in Church have decorated the recycled balls into items to be used on the trail.

Another school, St Anne’s and St Joseph’s, used the patches of the footballs to turn them into bugs hanging from trees, which will also be a key part of the trail in Arden Hall, Plantation Street.

The sculpture trail is set to open on Wednesday, June 5, and has been funded by Move 2 Change CIC.

Alongside the sculpture trail, leftover pieces of the footballs will also be used as part of free craft activities at this year’s Eco Fest event, which takes place on Saturday, June 8 on Broadway in Accrington town centre.

Eco Fest is a celebration of all things green and environmentally friendly, with a number of exciting activities, exhibitors and performers coming together to create a spectacular day.

The 2024 event will also celebrate the 25th anniversary of Eco Fest organisers, The PROSPECTS Foundation, Hyndburn’s community and environmental charity, who run projects across the borough.

The footballs were donated by the Accrington Stanley Community Trust to local business ‘Create Yourself’ after owner of the business, Louise Duxbury, was inspired to use sports equipment in an environmental and reusable way.

David Burgess, managing director of Accrington Stanley, said: "The work that people like Louise Duxbury does in the community for creative engagement is wonderful, and anything we can do to support and promote that is key to us as a football club.

"Well done to everyone involved!”

Martin Fearon, chief executive of Accrington Stanley Community Trust, said: “It is great to be able to support Louise for this local initiative, which really does showcase the creativity that we have here in the borough.

"The environment and how we look after it is so important and this event is a fantastic way to create awareness of that.”

Louise Duxbury, owner of Create Yourself, added: “We would like to say a huge thank you to Accrington Stanley for kindly donating these footballs for our sculpture trail project.

“It is amazing to think that these were once footballs and the children have had so much fun decorating and getting creative, and we can’t wait to see the end product this summer.”