BOLTON West MP Chris Green has backed Horwich Hockey Club’s campaign to keep their sport in Horwich.

The Conservative took part in a training session with the group on Thursday, an event held to support the team's campaign to save its pitch.

It comes after it was revealed that Bolton Community Leisure Trust had plans to convert the current astroturf pitch, the club's home, to a 3G pitch, although no decision has been made.

Mr Green believes that the town needs provision for as many sports as possible.

He said: “I had a great evening training with Horwich Hockey Team and hearing more about their campaign.

“Now that we know that squash courts will be removed from Horwich when the new leisure centre is built, we need to make sure that our town doesn’t lose any more sports.

“With Bolton Council’s plans for thousands more houses in the area, they need to make sure that all sports are catered for.”

The club maintains that if the plans were to go ahead, then it will be left without a pitch in Horwich, as hockey matches can't be played on 3G pitches.

The players have experienced success in recent years, including the ladies' side winning the Greater Manchester League Division Four in 2016/17.

In a statement released after the training session with Mr Green, the club said: "We feel this will impact on our success and growth and go against our ethos of providing the community of Horwich with the opportunity to play hockey in their home town.

"We have established great relationships within the community and benefit from being in such a central spot, especially when it comes to promotion and that visual call to action.

"In a time where inactivity is big on the agenda, particularly amongst women and girls and we are engaging with women and girls who until joining our club had never played hockey before, or taken part in physical activity for a number of years.

"To take our pitch away could have an impact on participation numbers. For our club members it is important to represent Horwich and play within the heart of the community and remain in Horwich."

But there is widespread support among the football teams for 3G pitch provision in the town, although they do sympathise with the hockey club's situation.

He said: “There are still simply not enough facilities in Horwich at the moment to accommodate all of the teams.

“We have some sides playing in Chorley and Westhoughton. It’s a big problem for the junior teams. Nobody wants to see any club have to move or disband or anything like that.

"The ideal thing would be to find a way to accommodate both but the astroturf is in the perfect location.”