IT has been a problem area for South Cumbrian football for some time – but a solution is on the horizon.

Whenever there is persistent bad weather over a prolonger period, amateur games are wiped out across the board – and there is no artificial alternative.

Just this weekend, a swathe of games in the Furness Premier and West Lancs Leagues fell victim to waterlogging or freezing.

It was just the latest of several weekends during the winter months to see mass postponements.

Even Barrow AFC themselves were affected – for the first time this season, as their own pitch has withstood many a battering from the weather – as their trip to Guiseley was called off due to parts of the Nethermoor being frozen.

Bluebirds manager Ady Pennock found himself being pelted with rain in Greater London, but with no risk of seeing an abandonment, as he watched Sutton United play on their 3G pitch against Dagenham and Redbridge at Gander Green Lane.

There are three artificial 3G pitch facilities in Barrow – at Furness College, Furness Academy and Pulse at the Park Leisure Centre.

But, while these are all capable of hosting junior games – and regularly do in the Barrow and District Junior Football League and other competitions – they are not of a size to accommodate competitive open-age fixtures.

But after being approached by Barrow Borough Council, Barrow AFC have been in discussions with the Football Foundation and the Northern Powerhouse.

They are looking at a potential solution to the problem – the creation of a new 3G pitch on the Training Pitch next to Holker Street, the present home of Furness Rovers.

The plan would be to build a full-sized artificial pitch there, which would be open to community use, allowing both junior and senior games to be played there.

It would also provide an occasional training base for AFC themselves, with players having recently taken part in several sessions at Holker Street under plans by Pennock and managing director Andrew Casson to increase their footprint in the community.

Initial plans were discussed about housing such a community facility on the pitches at Ormsgill, though there was some concern it would impact on the ability to host numerous junior games on different-sized pitches there.

But Barrow would prefer to see the 3G pitch sited closer to their Holker Street home, with discussions in the pipeline with Walmart – owners of the nearby Asda superstore – over the purchase of the land in order for the work to be carried out and the facility built.

“It's something that we would definitely like to do, both from the point-of-view of holding more training days and bringing the club into the town more for actual football football activities, and from the side of making it available for community use, for schools, junior football, our performance centre and things like that,” said Casson.

Funding the project will be a big issue, but the FA recently announced plans to invest more money in the grassroots game, and Casson said: “There's quite a bit of grant funding available as long as you have the right profile to support it. I think that's why we, as a football club, were approached about this opportunity.

“Initially, it came from the Football Foundation and the council. They brought us in to see what kind of appetite we had – it's something we're keen to be involved with, but the location has to be right and the operation of it has to be right.

“I've been in a meeting with a representative of the Northern Powerhouse fund about their appetite for investing in those sort of things. We're trying to put something together for that.

“Hopefully, as we go through the process, we will start talking about it more to the fan-base and the town. But basically Barrow AFC as a whole needs to become more of a community business, multi-use business, where the football is just one revenue stream at the end of the day.

“The Northern Powerhouse remit is to make investments in businesses who serve other businesses, and who can show things like job creation and job safeguarding. I think we can demonstrate that – if we built a 3G pitch, if we expanded the Crossbar and had proper meeting rooms, classrooms, facilities, gyms, accommodation, all that kind of stuff.

“The challenge is about bringing those constituencies together. Each of them have different goals.

“The FA and the Football Foundation really want a pitch in the area, but the Northern Powerhouse investment fund's goals are more around new jobs, sustaining jobs, community usage and things like that. You have to show the data sets and statistics about who would use it, how much they would use it, how many jobs would be created.

“The more the FA can make those funds available to clubs like ourselves in towns like Barrow, where there isn't the greatest of grassroots facilities, the better.”

He added: “It fits into the Barrow Bluebirds Ltd. As part of the funding, most if not all of the business has to come from outside community groups, so that has to be a part of it.

“Even if it didn't, we would only use it (for the first team) a couple of hours a week, bringing the players up here. It's usefulness and sustainability would be contingent upon getting schools, junior football and all the other activities involved.

“It's about trying to figure out where all the sources of funding can come from.

“It's about working with guys like Paul Hornby, Phil Colyer, other business-minded people in the area to really put the story together of why this is a good idea and why we should all be on board.

“We than take that to these funding groups, and also to Walmart, and say this is something we'd like to do to benefit the town, and it can really be a leading light for where this town could be in the next three, five, 10 years. Hopefully everyone buys into that vision and will help us build it and be a part of it.

“People always ask timelines, and you never quite know, because you have to find the right people and funding.”

One stumbling block for the whole project might be Walmart, who held basis discussions with AFC owner Paul Casson about how much they would want for the land when he first took over the club.

Casson junior is hopeful they could reach an agreement, having already built bridges with Furness Rovers over the past year, with the amateur club now using some of the facilities in the Crossbar building.

“My preferred location is obviously the field next door to us,” said the Barrow managing director. “That's not public land, it's owned by a much bigger corporation that us or anyone else around town. That's a different wrinkle into it, but that would be preferred location from our perspective, if we could make it work.

“Maybe it's time to go back to (Walmart), see what the appetite is, explain the vision and what we're trying to do.

“We've got a very good relationship with Furness Rovers now, so we will talk with them about the plans as well.”