JUNIOR soccer and rugby, together with more exotic sports such as the Asian game of kabaddi, will be encouraged in Pendle as a way of making more of the area's under-used facilities.

Saturday football is in very low demand while the number of games played on Sundays has stayed at the same level, using 20 of the borough's 27 public pitches, for a number of years.

Now Pendle Council leisure staff are looking at ways of encouraging more use of its pitches.

The leisure department is looking at ways of meeting the demand for mini-sized pitches for under-10s soccer as well as junior rugby, women's/girls' football, kabaddi and volleyball by turning some of the traditional pitches over to alternative uses. Junior soccer may be introduced at Victory Park, Barnoldswick, Holt House, Colne, Swinden Playing Fields, Nelson, and Parsons Clough, Brierfield, while Benthead, Brierfield, is being considered as a venue for volleyball.

Kabaddi games are played at a little-used pitch in Nelson but women's and girls' football is restricted to a degree by the need for changing rooms.

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