It has been almost ten years in the pipeline, but a west Cornwall village will unveil a new all-weather football pitch on Saturday.
The pitch at Greenslade Park, Sunnyvale Road, Portreath, will be opened at 12.30pm by George Eustice MP and football coach Stuart Malyan.
The new £146,000 facility is the culmination of eight years work to give the young footballers of the village a safe and purpose built area.
Stuart Malyan an FA qualified coach, first realised that the existing pitch in Greenslade Park was dangerous and unfit for use.
“Kids would turn up after school, see the goal areas still waterlogged three days after the last rainfall and trudge off home disappointed,” he said.
“Despite us raising a 200-signature village petition, Cornwall Council, who still ran it back then, had no money to do a big improvement job, so nothing happened.”
In 2013 Stuart and his father Hugh approached the Portreath Improvements Committee, which asked them to put a plan together.
In September 2015 the responsibility for Greenslade Park reverted to the Portreath Improvements Committee, when the council declined to renew the existing lease.
The community project charity Groundwork South were engaged, grant funding and planning permission were sought, residents were consulted and gave overwhelming support, and so the literally ground breaking project got into full swing.
Many set-backs were encountered, including the heartbreak of being turned down for grant-funding by Sport England, but finally the European Union's Coastal Communities fund and the Postcode Lottery stepped into the breach and funding of £111,000 was awarded.
“It's been a long haul,” says Stuart.
"Many of the kids when we started this have grown up and are now in university or at work. The good news is that thanks to the grant funding and especially the Portreath Improvements Committee's core funding and support, this fantastic pitch is here for today's kid's and future generations.”
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