Club move ends 17-year wait

AN amateur football club is set to end a 17-year wait for a new home.

Great Harwood Rovers FC will move to Heymoor Farm off Whalley Road and start playing matches on the £500,000 ground from next month.

Club bosses said this is the end of ‘stage one’ of their project and gives them four new pitches constructed to FA/Sport England standards and a car parking area. Stage two involves the construction of changing room facilities and should be completed by December 2018.

The club have been relocated to the farm site from Lyndon Playing Fields as part of approved plans to build 217 new homes.

Andy Counsell, club development manager, said: “It has been a long and hard road and we still have some way to go but with the same dedication we should get to the end within the next 12 months.

“We can now look forward to playing football at Heymoor Farm in January and the start of stage two. This will see the building of changing rooms complete with storage facilities, a coach education suite and kitchen to allow us to sell teas and coffees on those cold winter mornings.

“The pitches will be a lot better than what we play on at the moment so it should mean we get more games on them.”

Hyndburn council leader councillor Miles Parkinson said it is a ‘superb new sports facility for Great Harwood’.