The Football Foundation – the UK’s largest sports charity – has awarded £320,000 to The Joseph Whitaker Sports College in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.

The college will use the funds to surface its full-size football pitch with rubber crumb, so that it can be used all year round.

Paul Thorogood, chief executive of the Football Foundation, said: “This development will open up access to a whole host of people in the area. I encourage all the region’s clubs and schools to take advantage of the funding we can offer.”

John Loughton, head of The Joseph Whitaker School, said: “This state of the art surface will enable our entire community to access high-quality provision all year round. The successful bid to the Football Foundation is the culmination of 18 months of really hard work in terms of consultation, planning and actually making the application.

“In many ways the hard work starts now as we hope to have the project completed by July 2007. The grant will provide a marvellous facility which, in turn, will enable us to create an environment in which all users play the game in the correct manner and develop as members of society as well as sports people.” Details: www.footballfoundation.org.uk

Photograph: Paul Thorogood