WORK has started on a new athletics track in Leek.

Community leaders have brought forward a £29,000 scheme to replace the cinder track at Birchall Playing Fields, which has been out of action for most of the summer.

Coaches at the Moorlands Athletics Club feared it posed a safety hazard, which could end runners' prospects.

Instead, the district's top athletes have been forced to use alternative training facilities in Stoke-on-Trent and Buxton.

Now the work programme to replace it as part of the Birchall redevelopment programme has been brought forward by a year and it is hoped it will be completed within three weeks.

Mark Deaville, portfolio holder for sport and culture at Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, said he ordered the work because he was unhappy club members were having to use alternative facilities so far away.

Some were having to make round trips three times a week, totalling 60 miles, to keep up with their training.

Problems began when the track surface broke up in harsh weather conditions earlier this year.

Mr Deaville said: "I gave instructions that plans for the new track should be lifted out of the work programme and brought forward.

"The track had suffered from a lack of maintenance and had effectively come to the end of its serviceable life.

"I was not having people going to Northwood because we have not got the facilities here.

"Work started this week on the upgrade and it should be completed within the next few weeks."

The club has some of the top runners in the country and the junior men's squad are currently ranked in the top three at regional level.

Coaches include Roy Fowler from Leek, who was a bronze medallist at the 1962 European Championships in Belgrade.

He said: "I am absolutely over the moon. It will be something for the next generation.

"We hope the track will be ready by Christmas.

"There have been nine or 10 of us who have had to travel to Northwood.

"We do appreciate what the council has done and we are grateful to Stoke-on-Trent for allowing us to use their facilities.

"If we had not had that, I do not know what we would have done. You cannot knock this council, they have stepped forward and repaired it."

He added: "It will be absolutely brilliant when it is finished.

"Footballers will be able to use it to warm up as well as people who want to get fit. It is also used by staff at Britannia at lunchtime.

"I am very pleased all-round and would give a big thumbs-up to the council."

A group of youngsters from the club are hoping to qualify for the London Olympics.

The council is focused on developing a number of major projects to provide new sporting facilities to the district.

Councillors are currently working on the Leek Sports Village, a project involving the Football Foundation, the Football Association, Leek CSOB and Leek Town. As part of the sport village project, the Birchall playing fields site will undergo drainage improvement work, see modern sports facilities built and have improved parking.