A SPECIALIST sports college has been forced to put its new all-weather sports pitch out of action... because of bad weather.

Norden High School, Stourton Street, Rishton, opened its state -of-the-art pitch in 2003, at a cost of £300,000. The facility was funded with thousands of pounds in grants from the government, county council and the rest through school fundraising.

But today the school revealed the pitch was temporarily out of use because of problems caused by high levels of rain. Pupils at the school, who would normally use the pitch every day, are now using other sports facilities in the borough.

Sue Edwards, school business manager, said: "We are really having a problem. It's temporarily out of use over concerns about the surface of the pitch.

"We are taking action to remedy the situation. We have had it cleaned by a local company but because of the severe weather at the moment and the amount of rain it's difficult to get to the root of the matter.

The company is coming back but need to wait for a couple of dry days to be able to get on with it.

She said headteacher Denise Parkinson went to great lengths to secure funding and worked really hard to get the pitch built.

Now we are having this problem where it's out of use."

The latest blow is the second set-back to hit the all-weather pitch.

When it was first built, it was revealed that floodlights could not be installed to light the facility, due to overhead wires.

The pitch is also used as a public facility, and the temporary closure is affecting residents.

Hyndburn Council, through its Leisure Trust, also makes use of the pitch.

So far no date has been set for the pitch to re-open.

The problems are thought to have been caused by a number of factors, including the fact the pitch is built in a dip which allows water to run onto it, and a blocked drain on a nearby road.

Mrs Edwards said: "It's a blow for Hyndburn Council as well. They use it for their bookings at evenings and weekends. We appreciate the problem for them and we are doing our best to get it up to standards for use."

Norden, which this week began construction of a new sports hall, was given specialist sports college status in September.