Accrington playing fields refurb delayed by a year

The much-anticipated renovation of a major sports pitch in Accrington has been kicked into the long grass once again, it was revealed at a meeting of Hyndburn Council.

The King George V Playing Fields off Royds Avenue have been out of use for several years, with the pitch facing repeated drainage issues that have left the surface unplayable.

This problem caused Accrington Stanley FC to pull out of a 100-year lease and plan to turn the site into a training ground in 2023, leaving the ground to fallow until the council intervened in early 2025.

The authority ploughed a £595,440 capital investment into getting the pitch game-ready, with a full scheme of works including drainage improvements, reseeding, and pavilion repairs beginning in September 2025. But a year on, the King George fields remain closed.

At a full meeting of Hyndburn Council on Thursday night (September 24), it was revealed that the opening date for the playing fields had been pushed back by almost a year, despite its initial completion date being set for this month.

Instead, the King George V Playing Fields are now set to reopen in August 2027, two and half years after the works were first announced.

It has also been revealed in recent months that the playing fields will also be overseen and managed by the increasingly powerful arms-length organisation, Hyndburn Leisure.

Explaining the reason for the delay to gathered councillors, Hyndburn’s leader Cllr Munsif Dad said: “On King George’s Playing Fields, this Labour group has been committed to getting it back into use.

“Sometimes you rely on the weather, and also when King George’s fields can actually be meaningful to use, so we don’t have to go back to the drawing board and and actually damage will be done if we use it too quickly.”

Cllr Dad said that unexpected issues during the renovation, such as the weather conditions, had caused delays to the pitch’s reopening. Though the leader recommitted to opening the pitch ‘as soon as possible’.

He continued: “That will be brought back to use some time next year, I’m hoping that will be sooner rather than later, but we have to make sure that the seeding of the grass is an appropriate level and the fields are playable for any activity to take place.”

But Conservative Hyndburn representatives gave this reasoning short shrift, with Cllr David Heap, who has pressed the council at multiple meetings about the issue, saying afterwards: “This controlling group committed to teams playing on it by September 2026 and said everything was on track at every meeting since, including at full council by [Cllr] Munsif Dad only a few weeks ago.

“Guess what? It’s now not going to be ready until August 2027, and the running has been given to Hyndburn Leisure because this controlling group have no idea what to do.

“I won’t stop this campaign until teams are playing on there and they finally have a home.”

Cllr Steven Smithson also said: “Residents deserve clear answers about what has caused these repeated delays, what work remains outstanding, and whether August 2027 is now a firm reopening date.”