WORK on a new sports pitch at a Clayton school has been delayed by the discovery of a series of World War 11 underground air raid shelters.

One of the governors at Mount Pleasant Primary School, Councillor Miles Parkinson, said the shelters would now have to be filled in before work on the planned pitch can begin.

He said: "Preliminary excavation work has uncovered a number of air raid shelters. Their presence was not known of before because they do not appear on any maps.''

Persimmon Homes, which is building new houses on land at The Brambles in Burnley Road, Clayton, has provided the money for the new sports facility.

Councillor Parkinson added: "One of the ways we can get round this problem could be by using the soil from Persimmon's building site to fill in the air raid shelters, but it would have to go before Hyndburn's Planning Committee before this could go ahead.

"It is likely that the pitch will cost more than the £114,000 at first estimated but the rest of the money needed will come from the £200,000 the company agreed to make available for the scheme. The school would have liked to have got the work done during the summer holidays but it is now likely it will not be done until later in the year.''