A new sports court for a range of activities has been opened after fundraising by the community.

The Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA) has been unveiled on the Atax field, on Ovenhouse Lane in Bollington, for playing sports including football, cricket, tennis and basketball.

It is the result of years of work by partners from the community who came together to work on the project.

Coun Andrew Langdon, the mayor of Bollington, members of the project team and Richard Smith from WREN, which contributed almost £50,000, were at the unveiling and the ribbon was cut by Rachel Bailey, leader of Cheshire East, which transferred the land to the town council for £1.

Coun Langdon said: “Wide community effort and enthusiasm with financial support from WREN and others has delivered a new state of the art sports facility in Bollington.

“It will enable young people to enjoy themselves and keep fit and active.”

new Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA) at the Atax Field in Bollington

The area around Bollington Cross already has an active sporting scene, with Bollington United Junior Football Club and its 21 teams of young players and Bollington Health and Leisure Centre.

The Bollington Cross Youth Project Team, made up of representatives from the town council, Bollington Health and Leisure, Bollington United Junior Football Club and business and community volunteers, formed to improve facilities for sports teams.

They set themselves the challenge of creating the MUGA and new football pitches at the Atax field alongside the leisure centre and worked tirelessly to secure land, funding and planning consents.

They tendered the project to contractor AXO Leisure which designed and built the MUGA.

Coun Ken Edwards helped drive the project and Tullis Russel and Paul Gibbons of Decipher Consulting supported getting the Bollington Cross project off the ground.

Other funding was supplied from Section 106 planning contributions, the town council, Bollington Health and Leisure and Bollington United Junior Football Club.

The MUGA is open during the day and evenings for anyone to use free of charge. In autumn and winter floodlighting will also be available until 9pm.

Work now continues on delivering phase two, which is three new football pitches.

New Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA) at the Atax Field in Bollington