A SPORTS area at Walton High School in Nelson could be made available for use by the whole community in a bid to help children integrate better.

Discussions have been taking place between the headteacher at the school, Geoff Walker, and the council's parks outreach officer, Fred Stewart, to discuss ways of providing a multi use games area in the Hollins Road and Sansbury Crescent area of the town.

Members of the Nelson Committee were updated on the discussions at their meeting at Nelson Town Hall last night.

They agreed in December that the manager of parks, cemeteries and outdoor recreation should contact the school to discuss the possibility of sharing their sports facilities with the community.

The discussion centred on the possible dual use of an existing sport area or creating new facilities within the school's grounds.

Mr Walton said: "There are a lack of hard play areas in this part of Nelson. I told Mr Stewart that if space could be identified at Walton it would be excellent. We would have use of it during school hours for the PE department and it would be handed over to the community in the evenings and at weekends.

"Our sports facilities are pretty poor. We have some outdoor areas but they are not accessible for the community. If our grounds are being used it would need a new access point so that it could be open to the public when the school was closed."

He said a second option would be for the current court to be refurbished and made available to the wider community.

The question of security was also mentioned and Mr Farrant pointed out that there were no staff on duty at the school after 5pm during the week.

The school would not be able to provide any finance for the project as its capital funding was already committed to other schemes.

It is hoped the sports area will help to promote physical, intellectual, language, emotional and social activities in the borough.