HALSTEAD Football Club is set to receive a huge £100,000 in newly released funding to help towards ongoing projects.

A total of £134,387.80 has been issued from Braintree Council’s Halstead Community Fund, which supports voluntary and community groups with delivering community projects in the town.

There are three projects which will benefit from the funding.

The football club has received a total of £107,491.80.

Halstead Football Club was awarded £56,116.80 to replace its floodlights on-site and £51,375 for spending on pitch maintenance equipment.

Chairman Carl Pearse said: "Halstead Town FC is an ever-increasing important part of the local community, with more than 300 supporters regularly attending our matches.

"It’s good that we are able to work closely with both Braintree Council and Halstead Town Council and appreciate the crucial support that both give to the club.

"We now have over 300 boys and girls playing for our youth teams as well as four senior teams.

"Providing good quality facilities for a club of our size is both difficult and very costly.

"We are now celebrating our 145th year and the funds recently provided by Braintree Council will help ensure the club will be here for another 145 years."

As well as the football club, the town’s Holy Trinity Primary School Parent and Teachers Association will receive £26,896 for an all-weather shelter in the school’s playground.

Braintree council’s strong communities boss Mary Cunningham said: “Congratulations to Halstead Football Club and Holy Trinity Primary School PTA on their successful funding bids.

“We are pleased we have been able to utilise this funding to support the delivery of new and improved local services to meet the needs of the whole community, and we look forward to seeing these community projects come to fruition, joining four other town projects that have previously been awarded grants from the Halstead Community Fund.”

The latest round of funding means community initiatives in Halstead have now benefited from more than £528,000 in capital grant funding from the scheme.

Other schemes to have benefitted from the funding previously include Halstead Community Shed, an initiative which helps support the health and wellbeing of the community, with a focus on loneliness and isolation.

Braintree Council has said a further round of funding to allocate the remaining £71,283 earmarked from the fund will be announced in due course.