Respect our Pitches – Outfield Damage

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Respect our Pitches– Outfield Damage is a blog from a concerned grassroots club on the damage caused by a council appointed sports turf contractor. Far from a isolated case and a concern for for clubs from those who do not respect there pitches.

So, after selling to the club about getting in a contractor to renovate the square for the first time ever and seeing great results for the square and looking forward to the season starting, l went to the ground to find that the council appointed contractor had decided to come and slit the outfield today with their big kubota tractor.

Better have done Nothing

Great, but for the fact the outfield was far too wet for the works to be carried out, but rather than turn around and come back after a prolonged period of dry weather they continued with the work and as you can see, they have done far more damage than good. Yes, they have slit the field but as you can also see they have left tracks everywhere they have gone which has caused damage to the grass and compaction of the turf.

Now being a relatively small club, we cannot afford to reverse the damage caused and will have to explain what they did and how to correct it, it won’t just affect our cricket club it also affects the kids’ football that play there as well. The most annoying part of this all is, it took four months for them to replace the damaged water cover on the outfield which now has slits in it!

I hadn’t even thought about getting the cricket roller out due to the wetness of the field, not sure it would get back up the hill to the shed, but they deemed it suitable to do this kind of damage to our facility.

Where is the Respect for our Pitches

I shall be hoping that the council answers their phone in the morning after four failed attempts this afternoon! I really hope that they don’t come back tomorrow to finish what they started, as l think they want to seed the area all this adds to the fact we had our shed broken into over the winter yet again and yet again the council and police didn’t want to kn

Here’s hoping to a better outcome tomorrow and maybe arrange a meeting with everyone involved

Sadly, this is far from the first issue we have had with council contractors such as cutting off the outfield/football pitches. After one such cut, we had to spend hours picking up massive lumps of grass they left behind. This was due to the cutting of the grass while wet and or leaving the grass to grow too long and then just hacking it down.

A concerned and frustrated Volunteer Groundsperson.

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TurfCareBlog Editor Summary

Sadly, this is not an isolated case, we have all seen clubs on social media spending hours clearing up after council contractors like this. Many clubs like the one above have invested their time and money in making sport possible, but are at the mercy of contractors like this.

This club has invested thousands in that facility and treats the site with respect, their biggest worry is when the council sends their appointed contractor to come in. These contractors are multi-million-pound contractors, their drivers are driving around with tens of thousands of pounds of machinery, but do they not know they have done more harm than good?

Is this a sustainable way of spending taxpayers’ money?

Contractors were on site to decompact, but actually what they have achieved is a capping, sealing and burying of the grass and in turn made sport less possible.

Will it possibly grow out maybe, but but luck or judgement of the contractor and is this what a way to treat our clubs.

Do our voluntary sport clubs deserve this kind of lack of respect towards pitches, when clubs are working tirelessly to get the games on and grow the sport?

This kind of attitude and work goes against the whole spirit of what the FA and the Football Foundation are doing in trying to invest in grassroot sport pitches.

Brian

If you have any images or stories like this tag me in on social media or and leave a comment below.

#RespectourPitches

Are you and your club ready for the 1st of April, when the use of red diesel changes ? Take a look at this blog if your not sure https://turfcareblog.com/red-diesel-changes-for-grounds-maintenance/-