We have been made aware of a lot of speculative information circulating on social media with regards to the Higham’s Sports Hub, therefore we would like to update the public and answer some of the queries that are being raised with the following statements;

• This proposal is by Accrington Stanley Community Trust, an independent charitable organisation that has been in existence since 2010.
• The project has been ongoing for 18 months to date, and we announced our plans in February 2017 on our website, this was also covered by the local newspapers.
• The Sports Hub will continue to support a number of sports including Football, Rugby and Cricket.
• The Sports Hub will continue to be used by many grassroots clubs/leagues, and also for charitable projects and community organisations every evening and weekend.
• We will be providing a number of free activities on the site for the community, schools and other organisations.
• Initial site plans will include 1 full size floodlit AGP, 1 artificial cricket wicket, 2 grass football pitches and 1 grass rugby/football pitch. Final plans will be made public in due course.
• We remain committed to match the council prices for the use of grass pitches.
• The children’s play area that the Laneside Residents Association secured funding for recently will remain, it will become an integral part of the site for children and families to use.
• The final site plans will include a car park on site to ease traffic congestion on Thorneyholme Road.
• The current changing room building will be replaced with a modern new fit for purpose building that includes changing rooms, education provision, cafeteria and office space for the Community Trust.
• As part of the feasibility study we met with a number of current and potential users of the site to see if the proposal was viable. The study came back at the end of June 2017 and the findings were extremely positive. We have since appointed a local architect to lead on the planning stages. There will be public consultation as part of the planning process over the coming weeks and months.
• Hyndburn Borough Council are currently liaising with Lancashire County Council to try and secure the land next door to Higham’s as a public open space.

We would like to share this draft diagram below. We must stress that this is only an outline draft and it is subject to change as part of the full plans that will be submitted to the council.

We value the opinion of the local community and we are gathering all feedback for evaluation.

We would politely ask everybody with an interest to keep an eye on our website and social media platforms for further updates.

Accrington Stanley Community Trust