A MUDEFORD community centre has held a grand opening for its brand new £100,000 all-purpose sports pitch. 

Mudeford Wood Community Centre held a grand opening for its brand new £100,000 all-purpose sports pitch on May 18 after it underwent major renovations. 

Deemed unsafe, the old pitch had begun to wear after 30 years of use, flooding in the winter and dips in the pitch itself due to the tarmac underneath falling apart.

Chair of Mudeford Wood Community Trust, Liz Sabey, 79, said: "The trust decided to use their reserved to pay for a new court which actually cost us about £100,000 but we've been managing the centre as volunteers for 12 years and managed to have a reserve fund that could pay for it. 

"We've been working on this for about three years but fortunately we've got there and it's been rebuilt and done very well."

The pitch was opened by Christchurch mayor, Cllr Vivienne Charrett and was attended by the town's fire service and a group of cheerleaders from Revolution Cheerleading Academy. 

The centre hopes the pitch can be used for multiple sports including football, tennis and netball. 

Liz said: "We've always had it as a multi-sports pitch but the football association and other organisations that used it became unhappy with it because it was too hard a surface. 

"We've now got a special surface that meets all regulations for football, tennis and netball so we're hoping to get more football teams coming back to use it in the future.

"It's also used by our preschool and summer school that is there for vulnerable children and takes them and gives them breakfast, lunch and has them all day so it's a much better service for everybody to use."

MWCC is a charitable trust run by volunteers which consists of a main hall, three rooms and a pre-school suite alongside a kitchen and sports court. 

Considered to be demolished by Christchurch Town Council in 2009, MWCT has worked to hard restore the centre but has stated recent economic difficulties have made every day running a bit tougher. 

For more information visit the centre's website.