CHANGING rooms which cost £400,000 at Wallingford Sports Park will be officially opened today for hundreds of players.

The new facilities first proposed in 2009, will be welcomed by more than 1,800 members of seven clubs who play sports including rugby, hockey, tennis and football.

John Atkins, chairman of trustees at the sports park in Hithercroft Road, said he was delighted the project had been completed in time for the new season.

He said: "The old changing room block was dreadful so this is a huge moment for us."

South Oxfordshire District Council chairman Paul Harrison will join staff today for the official opening.

Mr Atkins said thousands of players from local clubs, including Wallingford Rugby Club, Wallingford Hockey Club, AFC Wallingford, Petanque Wallingford and Hithercroft Squash Club, would benefit from the six new changing rooms.

The chairman, who is also president of the cricket club, added: "The sports park has always been a campsite for BunkFest, so we gave the changing rooms a road test earlier this month and they worked well.

"I became a trustee around 2008 and by 2009 getting new changing rooms became a priority but we didn't start raising the funds until 2012."

The sports park has seven clubs with 1,800 members and more than half of them are juniors.

There are five outdoor tennis courts and the trustees also hope one day to build an indoor tennis centre.

Mr Atkins added: "You can never rest but it feels very good to get to this point – there have been some significant developments in recent years including resurfacing the car park which cost £40,000.

"It's quite unusual to have so many different clubs sharing one facility but there's a very positive feel to the place - all the clubs are growing gradually and that's a nice problem to have.

"There are lot of community activities held here and we have also provided new baby-changing facilities for those groups, plus a new disabled toilet."

The official opening at noon will be attended by members of organisations which contributed large amounts of money to the project, including the Rugby Football Union which donated £80,000, Sport England which provided £75,000, and environmental body WREN which paid £50,000.

The final instalment of £187,000 was approved in February by park owners South Oxfordshire District Council.

There will be separate male and female changing rooms for both adults and children.

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

The trust had originally planned a two-storey, eight-room block costing £925,000 but when it failed to get enough support from Sport England the design was altered to a one-storey, six-room facility.