SPORTS teams say that a playing field is no longer fit for purpose — just three years after a £474,000 transformation project.

The Hulton Lane Playing Fields underwent a major revamp in 2014, including new state-of-the-art pitches, a children’s play area, and a car park.

But rounders teams now claim that Bolton Council is neglecting their playing area to such an extent, by not cutting the grass regularly enough, that they cannot play on it.

The council says that the field is cut every two weeks during the summer, but that it does not have sufficient resources to cut it on request.

Michael Draper, manager and secretary of the Rupert Ladies team, believes that the field is now “worse than ever”.

He said: “The grass is not being cut regularly enough for us to be able to play there.

“At the moment, it is done every fortnight but that is not good enough to produce a rounders pitch — by the time our matches come along, the grass is too long. I send our fixtures to the council at the start of every season to let them know when we will be playing and when the grass needs to be cut for.

“But now we are having these problems.

"Considering the amount of money that was spent on refurbishing these pitches just a few years ago, the current situation is a complete mess.

"The grass used to be cut regularly so that it was really short and good to play on, but now they just let it go.

“Now it is like being back in the old days. In fact, I think it is worse than it has ever been.”

Rupert Ladies have played at the field for 38 years and pay £40 a year to stage their home games there.

The renovations in 2014 came as part of a £2million investment into sporting facilities across the town.

They included two adult football pitches, one youth pitch and one junior pitch to meet new FA guidelines, as well as changing rooms, toilets, and a car park.

A council spokesman said: "At Hulton Lane, the grass has been cut on a regular fortnightly cycle through the summer period, but due to recent good weather growth has been significantly more than usual.

"It has been cut today as per schedule, but unfortunately we do not have the resources to guarantee cutting sites on request to fit with fixtures."

The club, which has 17 members, plays between eight and 12 home games every year.

Mr Draper, from Westhoughton, added: “We don’t want to move because we have been there for such a long time and everyone knows that is where we play. We are a successful team, we have won our section 12 times in the last 14 years.”