Work begins on new sports facility at Clough

Contractors arrived on site to officially begin work on the state-of-the-art facility at Cloughwater Road, which will certainly benefit the village’s Saturday Morning league team Clough Rangers and intermediate outfit Clough Rangers Athletic, who have had to play their Ballymena and Provincial Intermediate League matches in Cullybackey, in order to have facilities which meet the criteria required for intermediate football.

“It’s proof that good things do come to those who wait,” said Tracey Gregg, secretary of Clough Community Association.

“The project is definitely going ahead and for the first time in a long number of years we will have a sports facility that we can actually use and be proud of instead of a field that is always waterlogged and therefore unplayable and a grotty mobile changing unit.

“This new facility is a council facility therefore bookings will be made through them in the usual way.

“This project will be finished this autumn but the pitch will need 12 months to bed in so unfortunately our teams will have to put with their old facilities for another season.

“I would like to Thank Bernie Candlish of Ballymena Borough Council and her team for all their help and hard work and also Councillor Paul Frew who lobbied council on our behalf.

“Thank you to the our local football teams for their patience and also to all my colleagues in the Community Association at least now we have a nice new state of the art sports facility to look forward to,” added Tracey.