By Matthew Legg

Last updated at 11:45, Wednesday, 21 March 2012

A Cumbrian football team has netted a £40,000 Olympic cash injection to improve its pitch.

Whitehaven Amateur Juniors has been given £41,418 to install a drainage system at its home ground.

The cash is part of the Sport England’s Protecting Playing Fields scheme which has been set up to ensure the London Olympics provides a sporting legacy for the whole of Britain.

More than £200,000-worth of grants have been given to sports clubs across the north west.

The funding is being used to bring disused playing fields back into use, improving existing sites and creating new sports pitches.

Whitehaven Amateurs will use its grant to fund drainage work at its ground to reduce the risk of fixtures being called off because of a waterlogged pitch.

Sport England chairman Richard Lewis said: “These investments will transform the local pitches where many young people have their first experience of sport. With all of these playing fields safe from development for at least a generation, communities across the north west can look forward to years of sporting enjoyment.”

Alison Moore-Gwyn, chief executive of Fields in Trust, said: “This fantastic investment into grassroots facilities in England will help to ensure that neighbourhoods can participate in sporting activities at all levels for years to come.”

Other grants awarded in the north west include: £50,000 for Bolton rugby union club, and £50,000 for Horwich St Marys FC.

A further £6m-worth of grants for playing fields is to be announced soon.

First published at 11:27, Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk