Work is due to start soon on a brand new sporting complex at Heaton Park in Manchester.

The Goals Soccer Centre will include small-sided football pitches, tennis and netball courts, a climbing wall and changing pavilion.

The £3.5m centre will be constructed at no cost to the Council and will provide much needed state of the art facilities to local residents, with 60% of the programme time made available to schools and community groups free of charge.

Councillor Mike Amesbury, Manchester City Council's Executive Member for Culture and Leisure said: "This fantastic centre will enhance the first class facilities already available at the park, without having any impact on its historic core.

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"It's something that local residents have been asking us for years and we're really pleased that it is finally getting the go-ahead. Despite the misinformation there has been about the development, I know it will be warmly welcomed by local Mancunians.

"Heaton Park is the green jewel in Manchester's crown and the Goals Soccer Centre will help us maintain it as one of the finest parks in the country - if not the world."

The complex will be located in the sport zone of Heaton Park, adjacent to the bowls facility that was built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

It will be created in the area traditionally used for sports and will use 3.4 hectares of the 260-hectare park, leaving the rest of the park's vast landscape undisturbed and enabling the other park activities to continue as normal.

The new facilities will see the return of tennis courts to the park, after they were removed from the historic core of the park as part of its ongoing restoration, funded in partnership with the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Heaton Park is one of the largest municipal parks in Europe.

(CD/GK)