Councillors have been recommended to approve a new seven-a-side football pitch, agreed to to avoid the controversial relocation of a village football club to make way for a giant water pipeline.

The scheme for Huncoat United is a result of the £1.75 billion project to upgrade the 70-year-old Haweswater Aqueduct which supplies water from the Lake District to Lancashire and Greater Manchester,

This involves major work on land off Bolton Avenue, Huncoat, which affected the football club and led to plans to move it from its current base for at least seven years.

North West water supplier United Utilities and Hyndburn Council originally planned to move Huncoat United Junior FC to two newly created pitches at Great Harwood's Memorial Playing Fields.

This would have required major works at the park and the felling of trees, angering local residents and councillors in both places.

But after intensive negotiations, a deal was agreed in August which will see United Utilities build a new pitch on Bolton Avenue Playing Fields in areas where its engineering work for the Haweswater Aqueduct Resilience Programme (HARP) will not cause a disturbance.

The route of Haweswater AqueductThe route of Haweswater Aqueduct

Now, the planning application for the new seven-a-side pitch to permit the creation of a construction compound on its original site will be debated by Hyndburn Council planning committee on Wednesday.

An officer's report recommending approval with 16 conditions says: "The proposed development of a 7v7 football pitch is linked to the United Utilities Haweswater Aqueduct Resilience Programme (HARP).

"To enable the HARP tunnel construction, a section of which extends from Huncoat in Hyndburn through to the neighbouring borough of Rossendale, a construction compound at Bolton Avenue Playing Fields is required (to be in place for approximately four years) to receive the tunnel boring machine.

"There are currently two football pitches within Bolton Avenue Playing Fields, (one 11v11 and one 7v7 pitch).

"The approved construction compound will be sited in the location of the 7v7 football pitch, although the 11v11 pitch will not be affected.

"It is important to note that the existing 7v7 football pitch would eventually be reinstated.

"As such, the result in the longer term will be the provision of an additional 7v7 football pitch at Bolton Avenue Playing Fields.

"Following a public consultation process, the applicant United Utilities has identified the area to the south of the existing 11v11 pitch as Bolton Avenue as the most suitable replacement 7v7 pitch location."