Pendle Council have announced that Nelson FC's former ground is to be turned into a new animal attraction.

"Little Wembley", as it is of course known to locals, has remained virtually untouched since then chairman Alan Pickering announced last July that Nelson Football Club were pulling out the the Vodkat North West Counties League.

Amidst the rumours of the team's resurrection, the local authority has been looking into what to do with the ground, and councillor Albert Higginbotham today outlined what they hope to turn the site into:

"It has long been in our plans to bring the spark back into the gem that is Victoria Park, and with the availability of the adjoining Nelson football ground, we felt there was a big opportunity just waiting to happen.

"Many options were suggested, and discussed, but we have decided that we are going to build a footbridge across the river at the southern edge of the park and onto the ground, which will be converted into a new 'Animal Kingdom'.

"We see it as a similar venture to 'Animal World' (pictured right) which has been run very successfully for many years at Moss Bank Park in Bolton, and we intend to setup plenty of enclosures with a wide variety of interesting animals for the public to look at and interact with.

"To retain some links to the footballing past of the venue, we will be including an area of the 'kingdom' for a few donkeys, although the rumours that Dazza, Bez, Sheapy, Thommo and Sparky are amongst the names already decided for a few of them are definitely wide of the mark.

"We are genuinely excited about these plans for what we are sure will become a local 'mini zoo' which the area can be proud of".

Work is expected to start on what will be a complete tranformation of the area later on this summer, with the council looking to have the venue ready for opening in the summer of 2013.  There is expected to be a small charge of around £3 for entry, to help towards the upkeep of these sweet little animals.

While it certainly sounds to be an exciting venture, which could well bring extra vistors back to the underused park, it will certainly court some controversy in certain quarters, and we wait to see what unfolds over the coming months. Some will think the council are acting the goat, but we can be certain there will be a fair amount of bleating about this.