WORKINGTON TOWN are heading towards a sustainable new home which will also benefit their freshly-acquired footballing groundshare partners and the community as a whole.
That’s the view of Cumberland Council leader Mark Fryer, one of the major driving forces behind the project to create the multi-use venue, with planning permission given and a timetable for construction and opening being drawn up.
The £17.8 million, 5,000-capacity Cumberland Sports Village will be on the site of Borough Park, the base of Workington AFC since 1937 and Town’s ground for the first eleven years of their existence until they built nearby Derwent Park, now the Fibrus Community Stadium, in 1956.
Now the clubs are back together, initially at the Fibrus, then the new facility, which after an additional £4.5 million funding boost from the recently-formed Cumbria Combined Authority, will be larger than initially planned.
CSV, also financed by the Government’s Towns Fund and the Football Foundation, will have an artificial pitch and community facilities, and when it is up and running, the Fibrus is expected to be demolished.
Two councils, Cumberland and Westmorland & Furness, form the combined authority, established to drive county-wide regeneration and economic growth.
And Cllr Fryer, who represents the Workington area ward of St John’s and Great Clifton, said: “The extra money means we are able to deliver the project in one single phase.
“There has been work in Carlisle, Millom, Whitehaven and Maryport and now it’s Workington. It’s about creating something sustainable which will make the town better for our communities.
“It’s not only a stadium, but a facility where people can come together for parties, weddings, conferences or whatever. I think it will be amazing and I can only see positives.”