THE LONG wait for new £400,000 sports changing rooms at Wallingford Sports Park will be ready for the start of new season.

The park's trust had been unsure whether the new facilities would be ready for when more than 1,800 rugby, hockey and football players began using the pitches again next month.

But the construction, which began in February, is about 10 days ahead of schedule and trust chairman John Atkins confirmed it would open up by the end of August.

Mr Atkins said: "The work is ahead of schedule and we will now definitely be up and running by the start of the winter season.

"It will benefit so many people who use the site but mainly our rugby and hockey clubs, who play every Saturday.

"There will also be a physio room with an on-site physio, which will be so important to the players."

Thousands of members from local clubs – including Wallingford Rugby Club, Wallingford Hockey Club, AFC Wallingford, Petanque Wallingford and Hithercroft Squash Club – will benefit from the six new changing rooms.

There will be separate adult and children and boys' and girls' changing rooms for the first time.

One of the rooms was fully tested last month at the memorial tournament for Wallingford Town AFC stalwart Charlie Allum, who died from a rare form of bile duct cancer in 2011 aged 55.

Mr Atkins said: "We actually managed to open up one of the changing rooms for the Charlie Allum match and all the utilities such as the hot water and lighting worked well.

"It was nice to use the facility for that tournament and everything to do with the project is going well so far.

"We are working on an official opening sometime in September but the finish date for the scheme is the end of August and it's fantastic that we will be ready for the new season."

The facility's formal opening will be attended by members of organisations that contributed large amounts of money to the project, including the RFU, which donated £80,000; Sport England, which provided £75,000; and environmental body WREN, which paid £50,000.

The final chunk of funding was approved by South Oxfordshire District Council, which owns the park, to the tune of £187,000 in February.

The Trust had originally proposed a two-storey, eight-room block costing £925,000 but when it failed to get enough support from Sport England the plans were changed to a one-storey, six-room building.