PLAY on new £750,000 football pitches in Blacksnape has been suspended until next year because of the poor weather.

Local football teams were told that the use of pitches would be reviewed on a month-by-month basis, but now it has been decided that they will be closed until next summer at the earliest for drainage work to be completed.

Nine full-size pitches were opened in March after two years of work including a new drainage system, pitch improvement work and a new changing pavilion.

The Football Foundation gave £525,600 to the revamp project, which was topped up with £100,500 from Section 106 funds from housing developers and £130,800 from Blackburn with Darwen Council.

Hundreds of amateur footballers from Darwen Rangers, Blue Star and Crown Paints teams now have to find alternative arrangements.

The general manager of Darwen Rangers Junior Football Club, Bill Stemp, said he was “very disappointed” at the news.

He said: “It’s such a shame. If we told the FA what conditions we were having to play in, I think they’d be astonished.

“We are having to play at Pleasington and Pleckgate, so every home game is an away game, meaning increased transportation and organisational problems.

“Darwen seems to be losing out.

“Two years of work have gone into the pitches and we are no nearer being able to use them.

“There are some lovely changing rooms at Blacksnape, but they’re a white elephant at the moment.”

Coun Michael Law-Riding, executive member for leisure and culture, said work carried out so far had not worked.

He said: "We have now resorted to having the pitches sand banded but this procedure needs a sustained period of fine, dry weather to take effect and due to the torrential downpours during the last few weeks we have no alternative but to arrange for this to be done next summer.

"We met with the league secretaries last week and decided between us that it would be in the best interest of all to relocate matches to our other pitches to enable games to be played regularly rather than rely on a facility that is not yet finished and will be off more than on, due to it being still wet.”