Addingham Civic Society has secured a grant of nearly £40,000 towards a new games area in the village.

WREN – an environmental project funding body – has awarded £39,342, which will be used to build the foundations and base of the multi-use games area.

Costing about £126,000, the all-weather pitch will be built between Main Street and Stockinger Lane, and will be 37 metres long and 18.5 metres wide, catering for a variety of sports, including five-a-side football, netball, tennis coaching and cricket practice.

Jim Robinson, chairman of Addingham Civic Society, said: “We feel it is something the village needs in these times to show that villages can do something for themselves.”

The society is now putting together bids to Yorventure and Sport England to fund the remaining key elements, which include a hard-wearing surface with a variety of markings for different sports, fencing and lighting.

If these bids are successful, work could begin in late spring 2013 and be available for use in the summer.