A state-of-the-art 3G pitch for the community is set to be laid at Winton Park in Ardrossan after the project cleared its first hurdle this week.
Charity the Ardrossan Community Sports Hub brought their application for £100,000 as part funding of the £500,000-plus project at the home of West of Scotland League team Ardrossan Winton Rovers to the Three Towns Locality Partnership.
It will now go to the North Ayrshire Council Community Investment Fund (CIF) for approval at their next meeting in January.
The total cost is between £500,000 and £600,000 and further funding will come from the likes of Sportscotland and Scottish FA’s Grassroots Pitch and Facilities Fund.
Eddie Gibb, Secretary of the Hub said: “The Hub recognise that there is a lack of sporting facilities and have taken over the gym at Seafield which has around 500 members and is a thriving success.
"Now we are looking at having new facilities at Winton Park.
“The application was based on our intent to put an astro pitch at the ground.
"Funding from the local authority is absolutely vital because once we get it from one organisation we will get more from other sources.
“In the cost of living crisis, young players from the Winton Rovers youth teams are having to travel to Saltcoats and Stevenston instead of Ardrossan.
"It will have a positive impact as it will give them a place to play a game of football.
“Winton Rovers will sign a lease agreement with the Hub charity for a peppercorn rate of £1 a year to sign the park over to the charity.
“The football club are doing this in the interests of the community as they are a community-interest club and we will populate the facility.
“We are hopeful that Cabinet will rubber stamp the grant and our target plan is to have it in place for the start of season 2023-24.
"It is great that all of these organisations are working together in this time of austerity and crisis.
"The new facility has been a pipe dream for the people of Ardrossan for years and now they have the facility in their grasp as it looks as if it’s going to happen.”
Winton Rovers chairman, Pat Breen, said: “The club are delighted because we have spent a fortune maintaining the ground and look at the weather in the past few days. It’s a big opportunity for us.
“Because of the rain we had during the winter we had to dig up the pitch and the kids from the Ardrossan Winton Rovers Youth Academy have had to play all over the place.”
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