TATTY and worn football pitches in a Blackburn park are set to be saved after the council stepped in to pay for them to be refurbished.

Blackburn with Darwen Council will now pay for the astroturf pitches in Witton Park to be re-laid, securing the facility for more than 100,000 users.

The council decided the pitches, laid in the 1980s, needed to be replaced to meet safety standards.

It applied to a football charity but the money was given to St Bede's RC High School, recently awarded sports college status. Furious opposition councillors demanded the council pull out all the stops to make sure the pitches, and the £80,000 annual revenue they create, were saved.

Coun Kate Hollern, executive member for leisure and culture, said: "I am delighted we have got the money. It will allow us to carry out the work and build up a maintenance pot so that it does not get in that state again. Some people thought I would not be able to get the money after the grant went somewhere else, but this just shows what a little hard work can do."