WORK to transform the Park Avenue cricket ground in Bradford into a £5.5 million state-of-the-art facility has officially begun, with a new artificial all-weather pitch installed on the famous field.

The bid to restore Park Avenue to its former glory is a partnership between Yorkshire County Cricket Club (YCCC), the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), and Bradford Council, with work mapped out in five stages between now and 2019.

A planning application for the first stage of the development - which would see eight practice wickets and a community pavilion built on the site of the former Bradford Park Avenue football pitch next to the ground at an estimated cost of £570,000 - was submitted in December and is expected to be determined by the end of the month.

If permission is granted, work is due to start in the Spring with aim of having the community nets up and running this summer.

The funding will come from Bradford Council's capital programme and the ECB.

As part of work funded by Sport England, the ECB targeted Bradford as one of five cities in which to engage more closely with South-Asian communities, with an initial focus of increasing the number of pitches available for community use.

Figures in the Council's Playing Pitch Strategy, released in November 2014, suggested there was a shortage of 18 cricket grounds across the district, with the figure set to rise to 25 venues by 2021.

John Wright, business support manager at the ECB, said: "We are delighted that the first phase of the plans for the Park Avenue Cricket Ground has begun, and for Sport England's support for this project.

"We're excited by the level of the demand for cricket in the local communities, and we hope our investment into new non-turf pitches for the Park Avenue and four other green spaces will meet that demand and bring great benefits to the district."

A Council spokesman said: "Cricket is a sport that brings many communities together, but there is a big shortage of cricket grounds across the district, and Park Avenue was seen as a golden opportunity to revive the once popular cricket club venue and bring economical, social and health benefits to the district."

Councillor Imran Khan, portfolio holder for sport, added: "We aim to create a first-class cricket ground that will hugely benefit the local community and attract top quality cricket back to Bradford.

"This a great opportunity to build on the history and tradition of this ground which Bradford people were rightly proud of, and can be again."

The full plans for the site include a new £2.5 million pavilion, complete with county cricket standard changing rooms and a 250-capacity restaurant, more than 5,000 new seats, and ECB standard floodlights at a cost of £1.35million.

When the scale of the redevelopment was first revealed, Mark Arthur, chief executive of YCCC, told the Telegraph & Argus that plans for the site included hosting elite games of women's and disabled cricket, and said there was the potential for first-class Yorkshire fixtures coming to the ground in 2019, when Headingley has a packed international schedule.

He said: "We want it to be the busiest cricket ground in the country, and all of us close to the project can see its potential and how special it could be."