COLCHESTER United have started work on their pitch - with the club making a ‘big investment’ in improving the surface for next season.

U’s chairman Robbie Cowling is set to splash the cash on improving the JobServe Community Stadium drainage this summer, following the problems the club had with it in the 2023-24 campaign.

But he has assured fans that the money used will not affect the playing budget, with funds instead coming from the work being carried out by Mr Cowling’s own building company and its equipment.

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Colchester suffered three costly home postponements in the space of four weeks in the latter part of this season due to a waterlogged pitch, leading to them reducing their pitch dimensions in order to ensure games were played.

Speaking at the club’s recent fans’ forum for season-ticket holders, Mr Cowling told supporters: “We’re not going to take it out of the budget.

“The way that we’ll be able to afford that is that I own a building company and we do our own groundworks and I’ve signed off on £106,000 worth of our own equipment – our own trencher, our own sand spreader, our own dresser.

“So we’re going to do all our own work ourselves, rather than bring a company in.

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“It’s going to be dearer this year but then we’ve got that equipment; I’ll get it back over the next five or six years, so I’m able to make that investment now and get that money back.

“It also means we’ve got that equipment to improve the training ground and that could also be better, with the amount of rain we have and I own a nice golf course so the joined-up approach works.

“We’re making a big investment on the pitch this year and it’s an expense but it’s not going to affect the playing budget.

“It’s never going to be perfect and the weather does seem to be getting wetter; certainly this year it was and that may continue.

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“There are going to be some issues but we’re going to work really hard to address it, in the way that we think’s best.”

There have been some suggestions that the newly-installed Northern Gateway development to the east of the Community Stadium may have contributed to the pitch problems, this season.

However, Mr Cowling has dismissed such ideas as ‘conspiracy theories’, stating that he feels the high amount of rainfall over recent times has been the biggest issue.

The Community Stadium pitch lies on a bed of clay and although there are numerous sand slips to enable water to pass through to the drains, that process has not worked as well as the club would have liked, particularly with the high amount of rainfall earlier this year.

A new main drain, along with several lateral drains, will be installed between those that already exist and the sand slips should meet, enabling excess water to drain away.