Amateur clubs in support of £2m hub
JON MACPHERSON
AMATEUR football leagues and clubs in Hyndburn have thrown their support behind plans for a £2m community sports hub.
They say the state-ofthe-art facility will help to stop the decline of amateur football in the area and ‘keep grassroots sports in the borough alive’.
The Observer revealed earlier this month how Accrington Stanley Community Trust (ASCT) has chosen Highams Playing Fields in Accrington as its ‘preferred site’.
The proposed facility will include a full-size floodlit 4G pitch, multiple grass pitches and a community building with changing rooms, classrooms, a cafeteria and offices for the Community Trust.
The trust and the council have faced criticism from some residents, who want the land to be kept as a public park, over the plans.
But Gareth Cross, secretary of the Accrington and District Junior Football League and the newly-elected chairman of the Hyndburn Soccer Task Force, said they ‘are in full agreement and support of the project.
He said: “As the years have gone by the league has seen the slow demise and the dwindling numbers of playing fields within Hyndburn.
“It is therefore great news to see the likes of ASCT looking to the future of one our nation’s great sports and taking a vital step to help preserve one of our local playing fields and thus helping keep grassroots sports in the borough alive.”
Craig Heys, chairman of Accrington Amateurs Football Club, 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 among 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.”
Martin Fearon, community trust manager, said grassroots football will be ‘key for this facility to thrive’.
He said: “There are 188 teams that play in the league which equates to 2,049 registered children who will have the chance to play football on this facility for their weekend matches and training sessions.” A TALENTED student will showcase her research into links between pole-fitness and selfesteem.
Nicole Brand, from Oswaldtwistle, studies applied psychology and has been invited to present her findings at the British Psychological Society’s Annual Health Psychology Conference.
The Blackburn College University Centre student, 21, started taking up pole-fitness classes three years ago and said it has made her ‘much more confident, positive, happier, creative and adventurous’.
She said: “When I think back to the person who I was before I started classes, I hardly recognise myself.
“I wanted to find out if anyone else had experienced this same shift in mental wellbeing like I had. My research showed an increase in mental wellbeing for new starters attending classes.
“The impact of my research in particular, I hope, is to encourage people with low mental wellbeing, perhaps people with depression or anxiety, to take up the sport and improve on their self-esteem, mood and general health.”
Nicole will take part in the conference in Cardiff in September.