Football is returning to Uplands Playing Fields in Stroud, giving more young people the opportunity to play the 'beautiful game'.

From this weekend Minchinhampton Football Club Under 14s will be based at Uplands, which is managed by Stroud Town Council.

Jon McGinty, a spokesman for the club, said the new base would mean that more children will be able to play football.

"We have seen a huge rise in demand in people of all ages and abilities to play football recently." said Mr McGinty.

"With that comes the need to find new places to play. Good pitches are like gold dust in Stroud what with our local geography so we were really happy to get the go-ahead from the town council to put the pitch back into regular use.”

Chris Woolner, manager of the town council's green spaces team, said: “It’s great that young people from the Uplands area will get the opportunity to play organised sport in their local community.

"I can’t think of many local pitches that have such a great view too.”

The Green Spaces team are busy marking the pitch and installing the goalposts for the start of the season.