Ottery Football Club has launched a £20,000 appeal to improve facilities at Washbrook Meadows.

The club needs more than £15,000 to fix its training and main floodlights, and a further £6,000 to carry out repairs to its electric, heating and storage space.

So far it has raised £7,000 and has planned several fundraisers, including comedy and band nights.

Club chairman Mike Ringer said the improvements would save the club more than £4,000 in hire fees for all-weather pitches during the winter.

“If we do not have these lights we cannot train in the winter or the autumn, which means paying out to train on the Astroturf,” he said. “It would elevate the costs for every team.”

Mr Ringer also said the ground is to act as a night-time landing site for Devon Air Ambulance.

In the clubhouse, heating pipes have burst under the floor, electrics need rewiring and new dry storage is needed, as its outbuildings are collapsing or unusable.

The facility is used regularly by teams, as well as by the community for functions, charity meetings and as a blood donation station.

Mr Ringer said the club was looking for new members to join its committee.

He added: “Connecting to the community is our aim; the door is open, come in; it would be great to get it back on the map.

“It’s far from being just a football club; it is the only facility in the area that has the car parking and the space to be able to have multiple uses.”