Major £100,000 upgrade for Tideswell games area

The village’s Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA) has been transformed.

Thanks to substantial grants totalling more than £100,000, including £44,000 from Tarmac’s Landfill Communities Fund, the village’s Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA) has been transformed and is ready for increased use by local people.

Gone is the worn out, slippery, puddled astro turf surface and instead the village now has two-layered permeable surface courts for football and tennis, plus lower painted walls, streamlined fencing and brand-new lighting.

Sarah Hargreaves, from the Tideswell and District Sports Association, said: “In a time when there are many challenges for local communities to provide sporting opportunities, we are delighted that we have been able to complete this project.

"The new MUGA is fabulous and we are pleased that we have been able to carry out the work safely despite Covid-19 restrictions.

“The current users – Bishop Pursglove School Academy Trust, Tideswell Tennis Club and Tideswell United Football Club – are accessing the site via a new Smart Lock system.

"But we are now researching how we can offer it out for hire by other professionally and semi-organised groups and individuals in and around the village.

“We were delighted to receive the major grant from Tarmac – it was the final piece in our funding jigsaw, and we are extremely grateful for all the financial support we received to make the project happen.”

The MUGA has been marked out with two double tennis courts, two five-a-side football pitches and a netball court.

The Tideswell and District Sports Association would like to see the MUGA used by groups playing netball or walking netball in the future.

A tennis player said: "We’re really enjoying tennis on the new surface.

"It drains well now and has a good grip so we will be able to play throughout the year. The new floodlighting is excellent too. We’re especially fortunate to have this lovely facility available during the current Covid restrictions as tennis is one of the sports least affected so we are enjoying a bit of normality.”