Work has started on a £1.35m scheme to provide new football facilities for Aylestone Park Boys Football Club on the site of the former Mary Linwood school in Leicester.

The Linwood project forms part of a city-wide £11.2m football investment programme and is one of 11 sites earmarked for improvements by August 2010 under the rolling Leicester City Council (LCC)-led initiative. Plans include six new football pitches, six block changing rooms, a referee changing room, a club room, floodlighting and a new sand-based artificial surface for the existing multi-use games area at Samworth Academy.

LCC cabinet lead for culture and leisure Andy Connelly said: "This is part of a new rolling programme of investment in sites across the city, which will breathe new life into the sport at grass roots level." The investment programme will see all 11 sites receive upgraded playing surfaces or improved changing facilities, as well as a development plan to encourage an increase in participation.

The Football Foundation has contributed £5m towards the scheme - the largest single grant ever awarded by the charity - alongside funding from LCC, NHS Leicester City, Sport England, local partner clubs and the UEFA Jubilee Fund. Deb Watson, NHS Leicester City and LCC's director of public health and health improvement, said: "[The initiative] also supports the government's current Change 4 Life campaign, which recommends that children need to spend 60 minutes on the move every day to stay healthy."