Council told to be more flexible on park pitches
10:10am Friday 12th March 2010 in Sport By Gordon Sharrock
ONE of the biggest and most respected junior football leagues in the country is calling on Bolton Council to be more flexible in its policy of closing parks pitches on weather grounds.
The Bolton, Bury and District Junior League, which has more than 500 teams and around 5,300 players, already has a backlog of more than 1,000 games after member clubs in the Bolton borough lost as many as eight weekend fixture programmes over the course of the season.
But league chairman Warren Barlow claims that on most occasions, pitches taken out of commission on Friday mornings were playable 24 hours later. He has called on the council to leave referees and managers to conduct inspections on the day of the games.
He argues that clubs who pay as much as £400 a season to rent parks pitches for Saturday morning games, are not getting value for money — in some cases using their “home” grounds just four or five times.
“The service they get from Bolton Council is abysmal,” he said.
“There is a lot of frustration among managers, players and coaches because of the unilateral decision to close pitches whenever there is just a little rain.
“Out of the eight weekends this season when there were blanket postponements, there were at least three when games could have been played, no problem whatsoever — even more if the Council had been a little more flexible.
“We believe managers and referees should be trusted to make decisions on the suitability of pitches on the day — as happens in other leagues across the country.”
League officials claim the problem is highlighted when parks pitches are closed while games are played on nearby privately-owned or school pitches.
Bolton Council insists its inspection policy is designed to protect and maintain the 80 pitches under its jurisdiction and denies making blanket postponements.
Pitches are graded in three categories — A, B and C — depending on quality and a sample from each category is inspected on Friday mornings.
Judgments on their fitness are made based on three factors: the condition of the pitch at the time of inspection; the number of games to be played on the pitch over the course of the weekend; and the 48-hour weather forecast.
The results are made available on an answerphone message on a dedicated “pitch line” from Friday lunchtime.
“It’s our duty to maintain the pitches,” a council spokesman said.
“We can understand people’s frustrations. Sometimes decisions we make on Friday may look strange on Sunday mornings . . . but we have to make decisions based on what we believe the weather is going to be like.”
The BBDJL referees’ secretary Bill Eaton said clubs who are based in neighbouring authorities benefit from a more flexible attitude.
“Wigan do selected call-offs,” he said. “You phone their pitch line on Fridays and they specify the venues that are on or off.
“Bury seem to leave it up to referees and Salford very rarely call off games.
“It’s very disheartening.”
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