New State of the Art Elite 3G playing surface for UCLAN Sports Arena

Contract Ecology consultants are delighted to see the new playing surface completed and ready for action at University Sports Arena following their recent appointment.

Contract Ecology Ltd was appointed by the University of Central Lancashire to provide ecological consultation when they sought to replace an outdated Premier League accredited Desso Grassmaster artificial surface pitch to a new top-of-the-range Evolution XQ 3G surface at their multi million pound sports facility on Tom Benson Way in Preston, Lancashire.

The new £780,000 floodlit pitch will allow football and rugby to be played on the one surface for up to 60 hours per week, 10 times more games than can be accommodated on grass pitches at the same venue.

UCLAN Sports Arena opened over 15 years ago and at the time was subject to a large scale licensed great crested newt mitigation. The grounds of the arena were sympathetically designed to maximise habitat opportunity for the species and several neighbouring developments have since used the features of the arena as a receptor site for their own capture and translocation schemes prior to development.

Contract Ecology ecologists worked with the universities contractors to perform onsite supervision and the pitch is now fully open and operational.