Accrington Amateurs Football Club are delighted with the proposed Sports Hub Plans at Higham’s Playing Fields in Accrington.
Accrington Amateurs have been in existence since 1925 and are currently without a regular venue to play their home matches. Following a number of discussions with Accrington Stanley Community Trust, the future is looking bright for this Football Club as they plan to use this facility once it is up and running.
Phil Liggins, Secretary of Accrington Amateurs said “Given the changing nature of the organisation and funding of amateur football, we see this project as a perfect way for us to form a partnership with a respected local charity “Stanley Trust” and secure the future of our club. Facilities are the biggest challenge to the future of any amateur football club and having state of the art facilities will allow our club to continue on a secure footing and provide a base for the players again.
The new site will provide the facilities we require, in the centre of our catchment area and allow us to grow the club back to our previous levels. At present, we have two adult 11 a side teams and have over 45 members, we hope to extend this to children’s and veteran teams with the help of Stanley Trust once we have access to the new site.”
Craig Heys, Chairman of Accrington Amateurs added “The biggest factor in the decline in amateur football in the area over the past 10 years has been the standard of the facilities available to teams. If this site and hopefully others to follow can show that facilities far better than previously in place are now available, then this should encourage the re-growth of the sport amongst the local community. A generation of potential sportsmen and women have been let down by the facilities available, but hopefully this can be re-addressed thanks to Stanley Trust and the support of the Council. We play in the Lancashire Amateur League which means during the season we have people visiting the town from all over Lancashire including Southport and as far south as Lymm, once this facility is open it will be showcase facility that will demonstrate the commitment of Stanley Trust to the people of Accrington and the surrounding area.
Martin Fearon, Community Trust Manager said ‘’this is just one of many examples of the success that the Sports Hub will bring to the area. It is being designed to help local people and provide a fantastic area for football, cricket, rugby and many other aspects such as health, education and employment.
We are extremely happy to be able to offer help to Accrington Amateurs who will have the opportunity of using the Sports Hub as a base for their clubs home matches on a weekend as well as training sessions in the evening’’.
Accrington Stanley Community Trust are currently working with an architect to design the Sports Hub and will shortly submit a planning application to Hyndburn Borough Council. Once the designs have been confirmed they will be made available for the public to see via our website www.stanleytrust.co.uk
