Pitch hike prices ‘unfair’

Teams who play amateur football in Rochdale are up in arms at the increase of pitch fees.

Trevor Jones, Chairman of the Rochdale Sunday League, attended a cabinet meeting on Monday night (6 June) to express serious concern over the hike in pitch prices.

The cost to hire a pitch on Firgrove playing fields, that will be used for around 10 games, will cost £713. 

Mr Jones told Councillors that this is “too much.”

He said: “I can’t understand why it has gone up to £713, last year it was over £600 from £545 the year before. What the hell it is going to finish up at I don’t know.”

Mr Jones said the price was “not feasible” and was a “big concern” to teams.

Mr Jones said in neighbouring towns the pitch fees are much lower. In Oldham they are £486, in Calderdale they are £460 and in Burnley they are £525.

He asked Councillors for a breakdown of the figures.

Councillor Martin Burke, Cabinet member for Devolved and Environmental Services, said whilst he thought it was “unfortunate”, and he “sympathised” with the concern, there would be no change.

“Sorry to give you the bad news,” he said, “but bad news it is.”

Mr Jones said he felt the response given at the meeting was “horrendous.”

He added: “This is certainly not finished; we are going to have another meeting for our next plan of action. It is certainly not going to be brushed away; we are going to fight it.

“We don’t want to lose amateur football in Rochdale, at the end of the day there has got to be a line drawn; we have got to work around this.

The Leader of the Council, Colin Lambert, said in “reality” the cuts had to come from somewhere.

Another club representative questioned why the fees aren’t in line with neighbouring authorities and told Councillors that football is “keeping kids of the streets” and should be a “priority” for the council. Concerns over the maintenance of the pitches were also raised.

Councillor Lambert said: “Public consultation on how the council will look in 2014 has started and some services will be lost in total because the government has cut the grant for Rochdale. That is the reality.”