Work set to start on £900,000 world class sports pitch and community facility for Boston

The state-of-the-art community sports facility is to be built at Haven High Academy’s Marian Road campus.

Funding has come from sources including Boston Town Deal, the Boston Witham Academies Federation, the Medlock Trust, and the Football Foundation.

The facility will be available to the whole community and has been welcomed by Boston Borough Council.

Project lead Nick Bishop, Haven High’s head of sport and project lead, said: “To be successful in securing a large chunk of investment from the Football Foundation for the project is fantastic, and means our ambitious dream of creating a ‘world class’ 3G pitch here is going to be a reality.

"The determination and drive shown by all stakeholders to bring this project to fruition has been phenomenal - we are very grateful for the support we have received.

"I would like to sincerely thank the Football Foundation for their support, along with Boston Borough Council, the Medlock Trust, Lincolnshire FA, Castele Consultancy and the Executive Board at HHA."

Emma Hadley, CEO of the BWAF Trust, said: "This is an exciting development and investment for BWAF and supports our belief that physical activity and opportunity supports academic learning, attendance, behaviour and performance for pupils.

"We are particularly pleased that the development of this community hub facility also enables us to strengthen our links with the local community in Boston and will be of benefit to many local people and groups."

Chair of the Boston Town Deal Board, which allocated £120,000 of the accelerated funding it received last year to the scheme, Neil Kempster, said: "The Board is delighted that one of our delivery partners has been successful in pulling together the remaining funding to bring forward this important project in Boston.

"It illustrates the huge benefits that the Government's accelerated funding can bring and shows that the partnerships in Boston can deliver for the benefit of the area."

Coun Nigel Welton, Portfolio Holder for Economic Development at Boston Borough Council, said: “The new 3G pitch will bring huge benefits to schoolchildren, local sports clubs and community groups, and is part of our aim to make sure first-class sporting and leisure facilities are available in Boston.

"We are very grateful to the contributions our partners have put in to support this project of grassroots sport. This is a great addition to our fantastic sporting facilities on offer in the borough and is another great example of the investment in our communities to improve people’s health and wellbeing.

“It was clear from talking to our communities that a new all-weather pitch was a real priority for the town. At the moment teams are travelling out of town, even across the Lincolnshire border, to play on all-weather pitches and that isn’t right.”

Construction of the 3G pitch is expected to commence early next month.

Mr Bishop said: "During construction we will be donating the majority of the topsoil from HHA (approx. 6,000 tonnes) to the Witham Forth Drainage Board to be used in repairing and maintaining existing flood defences in the local area."