Spring date for Cliff 3G pitch opening

Discovery of an underground 11,000-volt electric cable caused a six-week delay in the 2.3 million scheme and meant that a 50,000 contingency fund was eaten up.

For the full story see this week's Larne Times. His brief is to maximise use of the facilities which, as well as hosting Larne Youth teams, will also be open to other sporting groups and schools.

“We have already had a number of inquiries, but we haven’t been able to take any firm bookings yet,” said Mr Shaw, who urged support for the project, which has been the subject of formal complaints by the anonymous Protestant Community Lobby Group.

“This whole project came about through the hard work of volunteers who right from the very start have given their time freely and as chairman of The Cliff project I am very proud of what has been achieved. It has been a long time in the making and it’s a credit to everybody involved that we have all kept at it.

“If anybody wants to raise any queries, they should feel free to call at the Seacourt community office. And anybody who wants to be shown round the site is very welcome too, because you do not get any impression of the scale of the scheme from the road.”

Sport Northern Ireland, meanwhile, has said that “matters relating to the building process are for the applicant and its appointed lead consultants”.

The Belfast body added: “This reflects the fact that Sport Northern Ireland has no responsibility for the design, construction or project management of funded projects. These roles are carried out by the relevant professionals employed by the applicant body.”