East Staffordshire Borough Council (ESBC) has announced that local footballers are set to benefit from facilities at the Football Association's (FA) new St George's Park complex.

The council has signed a Community Use agreement with the National Football Centre Ltd to ensure that community access to the facility is established. Local footballers will be given the opportunity to use three full-sized pitches and community changing facilities, which will be made available as early as the 2013-14.

Pitch allocation will be determined by a Community Use Steering Group comprising ESBC and the FA, with initial requests to be made to Shobnall Leisure Complex. ESBC head of service commissioning Sal Khan said: "From the beginning of this application has been keen to ensure that the communities of East Staffordshire had as much access to the quality facilities that would be available at the centre as possible."