Last updated at 11:36, Wednesday, 23 January 2013

With just over a week to the start of Workington Town’s Championship season, the £450,000 redevelopment of Derwent Park is on target.

Derwent Park

The funding, from Britain’s Energy Coast and Allerdale Borough Council, became available when Town were successful in their bid to host the two Rugby League World Cup 2013 games between Scotland and Tonga on Tuesday, October 29, and Scotland and Italy on Sunday, November 3.

“The aim of the capital project was to get a good 80 per cent of the work completed before the start of the season,” said project manager and Town director Tony Boyd.

“The remainder of the work is less intrusive and can be done during the season and in the seven-to-eight-week period between the end of the league season and the World Cup games.

“The amount of work done by John Stobart has been tremendous when you consider the weather we’ve had of late.”

Work has taken place in many areas, including the Popular Stand, the grandstand and enclosure and in the bars, and there have been improvements to turnstiles, access areas and car park, the pitch, floodlights, crowd safety barriers, and the broadcast and media support areas.

A new drugs-testing room has been created and there is a new electric scoreboard.

“All those areas are nearing the position we hoped to be in when the season started,” added Boyd.

“We’ve installed new drainage on the pitch and work is progressing well on the playing surface – but that will depend a lot on the weather.”

First published at 11:30, Wednesday, 23 January 2013
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk