A WIRRAL cricket club has applied for planning permission to build a new training facility at their ground.

Port Sunlight CC are hoping to construct a three lane net at Leverhulme Playing Fields where the club have played since 1965. 

The club, who play in the Cheshire County Cricket League, have four senior teams, six junior teams and over 100 playing members.

In 2021 the club opened a new clubhouse and have said they now want training facilities "to match". 

A spokesperson for the club said: "Our current nets are inadequate, with only two well-worn and dilapidated nets that are an eye-sore to anyone visiting Leverhulme Playing Fields and have potential safety issue, with holes in fences, uneven and torn matting and runup areas that become uneven and worn over the course of the season.

"The current facilities make coaching and the enjoyment of training difficult, as it’s limited as to what can be achieved in these nets and they are nowhere near the standard recommended by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

"Our new proposed net facility would be fully enclosed to prevent balls flying out onto the field, fully surfaced to prevent damage to the grass run-ups, increased number of lanes to allow increased access for members and a higher standard of surface to improve the level of training and hopefully performance."

The proposed new facility would be a three-lane, synthetic surface, supplied by an ECB-approved non-turf pitch partner and, if approved, built on top of the current facility to minimise change to the current area.

The spokesperson added: "A new training facility is not only a necessity for the club to improve current and future generations of Eastham and Bromborough local cricketers, but also an upgrade on the current facility which is severely lacking."