A NEW sports facility that will be used by school pupils during the day and by the community in the evenings is being developed within the grounds of the Oasis Academy in Immingham.
The new all-weather sports facility will be available to locals, meaning they do not have travel to Grimsby or Cleethorpes to play five-a-side football.
The school, which has just shy of 800 pupils – including the sixth form – will now boast a cutting-edge five-a-side football pitch from which community leagues will be run.
Kevin Rowlands, principal of the school, said the development will be of great benefit to the town and help bridge the gap between school pupils and the wider community.
He said: "From a student's point of view it's great because they'll be getting a brand new facility to use all year round, as it will be an all-weather surface – it will be used during the wetter months, too.
"We'll be able to play a number of sports on the new pitch, not just football but also hockey.
"The role of schools should be to serve the community and our ethos here at Oasis is to be the hub of the local area, so it makes absolute sense to open our doors in the evening to residents of Immingham and encourage participation rates into adulthood.
"Projects like this allow us to keep up with the government health agenda and what's great is it's right on people's doorsteps and they don't have to drive ten miles for a game of football."
Councillor Mick Burnett said: "It's a fantastic new facility for Immingham, a Sport England standard multi-purpose games area that links into school sport and health programmes – it will be a real asset to the town.
"This is a replacement for the one that was lost from the supermarket development in town and ties in with the £1.3 million new leisure centre that is being built, all bringing up the standard of facilities in the local area and I'm really pleased we are in a position to be able to do that."
