Friday 3 August 2012

Welcome return of Saturday Morning League Football to Riverside


As reported in today's Courier, I have welcomed news that amateur football will be able to return to the Riverside pitches this month, following play having to be suspended last season due to injuries caused by stones on the pitches.  

I have been updated by the City Council Environment Department as follows:

Riverside pitches

As you are aware we have been undertaking remedial works throughout the summer in an effort to have the pitches playable for the coming football season.

Last Friday we met with a football representative regarding progress and our intentions for the season commencing 11th August.

We have agreed to put on pitches 1 to 4 on as they are currently looking very well following our verti draining programme and no stone has been removed from them in recent weeks.

Pitches 5 and 6 will remain off for the near future due to stone continuing to come off these areas.   However we continue to work on them and hopefully they may become operational at some point in the season but we will continue to monitor this.

Safety                     

We will continue or inspection regime on the Thursday prior to games going ahead and the football representative has agreed for the football teams to walk over and inspect the pitches in advance of games commencing.

Any issues found will be dealt with by our Environment Staff Supervision in relation to re allocation of  pitches if necessary.”

I am very pleased that there will be a return of the Saturday Morning League matches to Riverside – the league is an integral part of the West End Sports and Heritage Association that is working to encourage sporting activity at Riverside and across the West End.    

I’m most grateful to the City Council’s Environment Department who have worked hard to sort out the issues on the pitches.   This is good news for West End sport.