AN amateur football club boss said he is looking forward to playing matches at his new home after a 17 year wait.

Great Harwood Rovers received confirmation that their move to a new ground in Heymoor Farm has been completed and they can start playing on the ground in January.

The move comes after plans for 217 new houses were approved for its previous home at the nearby Lyndon Playing Fields in Harwood Lane.

Staff at the club said this marks the end of ‘stage one’ of the project which gives them four new FA and Sport England standard pitches and a car parking area.

Stage two will now start on changing rooms at the site, which have a target completion date of December 2018.

Andy Counsell, trustee at the club, said: “We’ve been waiting a long time for this.

“This has been a gift to us.

“The pitches will be a lot better than what we play on at the moment so it should mean we get more games on them.

“When we get the changing rooms the club should explode from there.

“It means the club will get bigger and better.

“There are still people in Great Harwood who don’t know who we are, even though we have around 250 kids.

“It’s like winning a semi-final.

“It means nothing if we don’t get the changing rooms.”

The club will initially using steel shipping containers to store equipment until the changing rooms are built, as they do at the current ground.

The club will be landlords of the new grounds along with Great Harwood Agricultural Society.

Building work is expected to start on the changing rooms in the next six months and should be complete within a further six months.

The building will also include storage facilities, a coach education suite and kitchen to sell teas and coffees.

The car park at the site will feature 64-spaces and will look to aid congestion in Harwood Lane.

Work started in June last year after plans were approved by Hyndburn Council from Reilly Developments for the site.

The club has football teams ranging for children from under the age of seven upwards.

Cllr Noordad Aziz, who represents Great Harwood on Hyndburn Council, said: “It’s the first time in many years the children will be able to look forward to changing room facilities dedicated to them.

“The standard of the pitches will be fantastic.

“It will be great to see facilities that can serve the community for years to come.”