People living in Halton are set to benefit from fresh investment into local football facilities.
Halton Borough Council has been awarded a grant from the Premier League, The FA and Government’s Football Foundation to refurbish the sand-based astro-turf pitch at Brookvale Recreation Centre in Runcorn into a new 100m x 64m LED floodlit 3G Football Turf Pitch.
The Football Foundation is the UK’s largest sports charity and exists to improve the experience of playing football for everyone, by championing fair access to quality facilities.
This grant will give locals who play at Brookvale Recreation Centre the chance to play football each week on a fantastic new pitch.
Halton Borough Council worked with the Football Foundation and the County FA to secure a £303,284 grant towards the £587,284 project.
Cllr Paul Nolan, the Council’s portfolio holder for sport and leisure, says: “The current pitch at Brookvale is long overdue an upgrade so it’s great news that we can now provide the local community with the latest, top quality playing surface, thanks to the Football Foundation.”
Robert Sullivan, Chief Executive of the Football Foundation, said: “This grant award to Halton Borough Council towards developing this project is great news for the local community. It will support people’s ability to play our national game locally and therefore help unlock football’s many benefits to physical and mental wellbeing. That’s why we’re committed to transforming the face of grassroots football facilities in this country.
“The Football Foundation is working closely with our partners – the Premier League, The FA, government and Sport England – support facility development projects like this across the country over the next decade to transform our grassroots game and unlock the power of pitches.”
About the Football Foundation
The Premier League, The FA and Government’s Football Foundation is the largest sports charity in the UK. It champions and supports fair access to quality football facilities for everyone, regardless of gender, race, disability or place.
The Foundation receives money from the Premier League, The FA and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, through Sport England. This is matched with partnership funding and awarded as grants to create outstanding grassroots facilities that enable better games and attract more players, helping to transform communities.
Since 2000, it has awarded more than 17,600 grants to improve facilities worth more than £710m – including 942 artificial grass pitches, 6,426 natural grass pitches and 1,200 changing facilities. This has attracted an additional £940m of partnership funding – totalling over £1.6bn investment in grassroots football so far..
Through the Foundation, the Premier League, The FA, DCMS and Sport England have come together to create the National Football Facilities Strategy (NFFS) that will guide work over the next 10 years to transform many more local facilities. Local Football Facility Plans (LFFP) are being created to identify priority projects where demand is greatest, and the impact will be strongest and help stimulate the action required to deliver them.
Visit footballfoundation.org.uk for more information on the Foundation.
