WORK is proceeding to bring back into use a group of disused soccer pitches as the votes pile up in a bid to win £25,000 to pay for their revival.

TWO junior football clubs want to revitalise the sports ground off Branch Road, Lower Darwen.

Darwen Rangers and Junior Gardeners have applied for a £25,000 grant from a scheme run by insurance giant Aviva’s community fund .

They need enough online votes to be in the top 24 of 3,000 applicants to make it through to the final assessment.

So far they have 4,000 and the social media support of former Blackburn Rovers players Colin Hendry and Simon Barker.

Already the clubs have started to repair a footpath, removed an unsafe building and paid for a bollard to keep unwanted vehicles off the land,

John Parker, chairman of Darwen Rangers, said: “Our vote in the Aviva Community Fund just hit 4000.

"I am targeting 7000 to be safely into the next round.

"We have secured funding to repair the path on the unadopted land by Trinity Church.

"The clubs have funded an access control bollard to the site from Branch Road to make sure no unwanted vehicles can get on or off.

"We have taken down a dangerous structure which had been subject to vandalism and storm damage.

"The bid has had support on Twitter from Colin Hendry and Simon Barker. We are plugging away."

People backing the project should register and vote at https://www.avivacommunityfund.co.uk/voting/project/view/4-3188.

Voting ends on November 20.