YOUNGSTERS will soon be able to exercise on a new community sports facility allowing them to play football, cricket, bask-etball and hockey in all weathers.

North Hinksey Parish Council has won a £66,593 grant to build an all-weather pitch in the upper Louie Memorial Fields, close to Matthew Arnold School.

It is hoped the 100ft by 60ft pitch will help Botley’s youngsters stay fit and healthy, and cut down on the amount of graffiti and vandalism in the village.

The council has also been told by its insurers that the Botley skate bowl is “beyond repair”.

The 19-year-old bowl was badly damaged nine months ago when thieves drove a stolen van into it before setting the vehicle alight.

As the council no longer has insurance cover for the bowl it will be filled in using earth dug up during the building of the new sports pitch.

Work on the all-weather pitch will begin in the next two months with the aim of completing it by September.

Parish councillor Stephen Elliott, chairman of the playing fields sub-committee, said: “This will be a really good size piece of apparatus for local children. Boredom is a big problem in Botl-ey as there’s little for kids to do.

“That can lead to low-level anti-social behaviour and we strongly feel that the pitch will benefit the kids and reduce the chance of that antisocial behaviour aris-ing.

“Youngsters will be able to get fitness and health benefits from the pitch. It will be a really positive thing for them and something they can be proud of.”

The work comes two years after the council spent £65,000 on a play area in the Lower Louie Memorial playing fields for under-12s.

The council is also looking to build a £10,000 ‘trim trail’ with exercise equipment as well as replacing the skate bowl with the proceeds from its insurers at some point in the future.